Ace Savvy: A New Hope
by UnderratedHero
Summary: Royal Woods' hope and optimism vanished away with the death of the city's last great hero. Lincoln, a witness of the crime, feels in his heart the responsibility to carry on with his idol's legacy. On his journey, he'll find allies, obstacles, and he will begin to uncover the secrets of his past. Can a single boy bring hope back to his city? [Heroverse AU]
1. A bad roll killed my hero

**Hey everyone! I've been planning this for several months, and I think there's no better time to launch this thing than right now, the day a superhero special from the show premieres.**

**So, here are some facts about me: I love AUs. I love superheroes. I love comic books. I love Marvel movies and the MCU, and I love The Loud House.**

**This thing I'm starting right now is my big, big, big project. This is going to be definitely more ambitious and important than my latest big project, Requiem for a Loud. I'm gonna replicate the MCU in a fanfiction format.**

**This is the first entry of the Heroverse. A series of interconnected stories, all taking place in the same universe, with characters meeting each other, teaming up, and going through their own personal arcs. I think of every story as a movie, and it kinda follows a movie structure. I could not launch this with anything other than Ace Savvy. Lincoln is our cornerstone, and it felt right to kick everything off with him.**

**Two little things to mention before we start:**

**One: even though everything will be interconnected, the idea is that every single story is a standalone story. Like the Marvel movies!**

**Two: Remember, this is an AU. Don't look at Kings of the Con and the Full Deck and think that everyone's going to have the same superhero identity from the show. These are my personal views of them as superheroes, and most of them have nothing to do with what they are in canon.**

**So let's deal out some justice!**

**Credits to JamesSunderlandsPillow for coming up with Eclipse's name. "And who the hell is Eclipse?" You'll find it soon enough.**

* * *

**Chapter 1:  
****A bad roll killed my hero.**

I'll be honest: sometimes I wish I wasn't a hero.

Being a hero is complicated. It's exhausting. It's difficult and dangerous. You have to always be responsible, you need to be an example, you must constantly put yourself at risk to protect your community. You have to miss out on dates or game nights with your friends just so you can go outside and help complete strangers. It takes most of your day and you don't even get paid for it. It's not like you can put on your cape, your mask, and go to the movie theaters asking for a discount on popcorn. People would think that you're taking advantage of your reputation, and that's not very heroic, isn't it?

At the end of the day, though, I feel like I'm doing something that matters. Yes, sometimes it's a little annoying, and yeah, sometimes one would rather stay home than dodge bullets on the street, but I gotta admit that even that has its fun side.

Yeah, being a hero is complicated, but I think I wouldn't trade it for the world.

My name is Lincoln McBride, and this is the story of how I became a hero, all because of one disastrous roll. And just like every great story ever, it began with our heroes hanging out on a tavern.

* * *

Of course, the tavern was imaginary, and the people hanging out weren't exactly heroes, but rather they were my friends and me, but when you're playing Dungeons And Dragons it's ok to refer to yourself as your hero. We were all gathered in my basement, sitting around a table upon which our friend Stella placed our miniatures and drew the maps. She was the one that got us into DnD, and she's such a great DM, with her brief but immersive descriptions, her eloquent vocabulary, and her great ability to improvise. She motivated us to become better players, engaged and creative.

We had all fallen in love with getting into character, acting out our dialogues with funny voices, describing our actions and even making sound effects every time we made an attack or cast a spell. Actually, and I don't want to toot my own horn when it comes to my sewing and design skills, but I had even confected costumes for each one of us, and we loved putting them over our clothes every time we hang around to play!

Ok, look, I could honestly spend hours just talking about the campaign we were playing and how the destiny of the Forgotten Realms was directly tied to our decisions, but that's not really the point of this, so let me just fast forward to the time where rolling dice changed forever my life and the history of our city.

Our heroes had opened their way through a subterranean dungeon crowded with monsters of all kinds. The party was formed by Liam's ranger, Zach's warlock, Rusty's rogue, Clyde's cleric, Jordan's bard and, of course, my very own paladin, Silver Edge. I chose that name for him because he had a silver, magic sword with a +2 bonification against undead creatures, which I thought was super cool.

After finishing off a handful of giant spiders, we left behind a room filled with magic items and treasure, and we entered what would end up becoming a stage of death.

"You close the door behind you, placing an iron rod against it to keep it from opening from the other side, and you turn around to find yourselves at what appears to be the edge of a cliff," described Stella, giving me the creeps. "The darkness around you is maddening, but the light coming out of Silver Edge's sword is enough to let you pick up some details on the carved stone of the floor. You can tell this cavern isn't natural. A little further, two torches flaring up with a magical, soft fire are flanking the entrance to an old bridge made out of rope and wood planks. There's a soft breeze running through the open space, making the bridge move slightly from side to side, and the very low noise of water in movement manages to reach your ears from down below. Almost like the whisper of a sea filled with condemned souls."

We all exchanged a worried look.

"There's definitely something down below."

"Some giant tentacles are going to attack us as soon as we reach the middle of the bridge."

"Probably."

Stella just smiled at us, which only made us feel more anxious.

"How far away are we from the bridge?" Asked Liam.

"I'd say, uh, about sixty feet. That's roughly the space between the stone wall you came from and the edge of the cliff."

"By Merlin's beard, that was a close one," Zach said, using the deep voice of his character. "I don't know about you guys, but I spent almost all my magic, I only have one spell left. I could really use a short rest."

"Ha! I knew you wouldn't be able to keep up with my pace. I could have taken this mission on my own," said Rusty with a raspy voice that he had chosen for his goth, edgy, dagger-throwing, antisocial assassin. It's not a secret that none of us like his character.

"What Shadowblade is trying to say is that it'd be dangerous to rest in here," said Jordan, speaking with a very formal British accent. It's no secret either that she tends to be the voice of reason in our games. "Even though I could really use a short rest to heal some of my wounds."

"After hearing that, Silver Edge will walk towards Circe and use Lay on Hands on her so she can gain fifteen hit points back," I said almost immediately, taking the first chance I had to help Jordan's character.

I, uh, I guess I should probably mention that I like her.

We had always been good friends at school, classmates ever since we were six years old, but it wasn't until last summer where I began finding myself staring at her more than necessary, trying to be on the same team as her, and getting jealous whenever Liam or Rusty talked to her or put an arm around her shoulders in a casual way. To be honest, I wouldn't have really figured out how much I like her if it wasn't for that time when Clyde, as we were lying down in our shared room, pointed it out for me. I didn't understand what these feelings really meant, but ever since then, Clyde had been trying to get me to ask her out on a date.

I was, of course, terrified and completely against that idea. I wouldn't be able to stand a rejection, and I didn't want to risk our relationship being ruined because of my feelings. We were only eleven years old, there was no need to hurry, right? No, no, I didn't want to even think about confessing my feelings. That was a responsibility I wasn't ready to take.

But that didn't mean I couldn't spend half my healing on her.

"Very well. How do you cure her?" Stella asked with a knowing grin, moving her hand towards me and Jordan, who was sitting right next to me, in an unmistakable gesture of "show us".

She used to ask those types of questions so we could "get into character", but I was pretty sure she knew about my feelings for Jordan, and she was trying to make me look like an idiot in front of everyone. Or maybe she thought she was helping me, but in that case, she didn't know me enough.

I looked to my right, and Jordan's pretty eyes found mine. I felt butterflies in my stomach, and my throat got dry.

"I raise my hand and I… g-gently put it on Circe's cheek," I said, raising my hand in the air in front of me, but Stella pointed at Jordan once again, and as I moved my hovering hand and placed it on her cheek, I wished that the cliff and the bridge would materialize right there in my basement so I could jump into the void, so no one could see my blushing face. "I close my eyes and think of my oath, and let the divine energy cure her."

I did as I said, closing my eyes, pretending I was trying to get into character, when really all I wanted was to mask the embarrassment I was getting from touching the face of the girl I liked. The contact only lasted for a few seconds, but I could perfectly feel the corner of her lips curling up into a smile. And it was too fast to tell for sure, but I swear I felt her face slightly warmer than usual.

"Thanks, Silver Edge," Jordan said with a smile. She wrote her new hit points on her character sheet.

I tried to respond, but I ended up masking my incoherent gibberish with a fake cough.

"Can we tell what's beyond the bridge, or is it just darkness?" Clyde asked, trying to change the topic like the good brother that he is so I wouldn't die from embarrassment.

Ok, yeah, you'll probably be all like "Brother? But Lincoln, you and him… uh…" Yeah, I know. We don't look like we're related, me with my straight white hair, him with his curly black hair. The truth is that I'm adopted. Clyde's dad and his husband adopted me when I was three years old, so ever since I have memory, he has been my brother and best friend. He's such an inspiration to me. Super smart, super kind, super supportive. He's definitely one of the best things in my life, and I would give it all for him.

"Make a perception check, please," the DM asked.

Clyde grabbed his die, blew some air on it, rolled it, and then proceeded to grunt.

"Seven…"

We all looked at each other. Stella smiled. I gulped.

"It is definitely total darkness, you can barely even see the bridge under the soft, green torches. You can make about fifteen feet of it, but after that, nothing. It might go on for thirty feet, or two hundred."

"We can't rest if we don't know what's on the other side of the bridge," I said out loud before looking at Stella. "I'll make a gesture to my friends so they wait here, and I'll try to cross the bridge, see how far it goes. As I'm moving, I'll keep an eye out for anything trying to attack me from down below."

Stella's smirk became even more pronounced, much eviler, and I knew I was walking right into a trap. I would be regretting this for sure, but my character was a hero, he didn't run away from trouble. If he had to walk right into a trap to make sure that his companions would be safe, he would, because that was his personality.

"Before that, Circe will kiss him on the cheek and give him bardic inspiration," said Jordan, writing down the use of her ability on her character sheet before looking at me. "You can add 1d8 to… well, pretty much any roll."

A kiss on the cheek? Seriously? Gosh, why was this girl so nice and pretty? Couldn't she tell that I was crazy for her? I thanked the gesture and tried to look calm as Stella described my character walking onto the bridge, but I couldn't keep myself from stealing looks at Jordan.

I was so distracted, in fact, that I barely heard Stella describing how halfway into the bridge, a group of zombies came running right at me from the dark. I tried to move back with my companions, but Stella was evil, and from the top of the cavern (not the bottom as we had imagined), a Grick (like, a twenty-foot worm with an eagle's beak and tentacles around its head) fell on the bridge, standing between my friends and me.

Great.

Not only that but after rolling for initiative, my character ended with the last turn.

Super great.

Again, I don't wanna bore you too much with this, so let me go straight to the point: by the time it was my turn to act, I had already lost most of my hit points. The Grick was a pretty nasty monster and standing at the edge of the bridge, it kept my friends away from me, leaving me all alone. I might have been able to take down one or two zombies in my turn, but unless I could come up with a marvelous play…

I asked Stella for a few minutes to think this through, and no one had a problem with me taking some time to analyze my situation. I had many ideas… I checked my spells, looked back at my hit points, I tried to think of the mathematical probabilities of getting a critical hit… I thought about it over and over again, but in the end, I decided to stop trying to come up with the mechanically most efficient option and just go with what my character would do.

Silver Edge was honorable. He believed in his cause. He was brave, kind, determined. He knew that the party was on the edge of glory, about to do something great for mankind. Millions of lives depended on their mission. He could not let it fail.

Even if that meant that he wouldn't be there to see it completed.

I sighed, and my eyes slowly looked up to meet Stella's.

"I'll use a bonus action just to look over my shoulder, to my friends, my brother, Circe, Shadowblade, all of them… and with my action, I'll cut the bridge's ropes."

It was as if someone had cast Polymorph on Stella's face. Her sassy, fun, evil-ish smirk turned into a look of surprise and terror that almost made me feel bad. She blinked, shocked, and she began to frantically look through her notes as the rest of my friends stood up, scandalized, telling me not to do it, that there had to be a different way, that I was still in time to change my mind. But I had already declared my action, and I wasn't going to back away from it. It's what my character would do.

What any real hero would do.

"I… uh… Everyone… All of you watch as Silver Edge cuts the ropes," Stella announced, clearly affected by my reaction. "The blade shines bright as it moves in the air, drawing a perfect arc that cuts both of the ropes that keep the bridge handing. For a second, for an instant that stretches out and remains forever captured in your memories… it all stays the same. Gravity's not working yet, time stops, and all of your eyes stay connected to your friend. And then, when the fraction of a second passes… the bridge falls, dragging down with it the dozen of zombies, the grick standing in front of you, and Silver Edge, his glowing sword losing itself in the dark void of the cliff, like a fleeting shooting star… A-And that's where we'll end today's session."

We had only been playing for two hours, but no one complained. They were all with their hands on their faces, staring at me with open mouths and incredulous eyes. I had just caused our first character death in our campaign. It was definitely a tough moment for everyone, especially me, but I tried to pretend that it wasn't that big of a deal.

Still, I was pretty bummed out as we all packed our stuff and took my costumes away, while Clyde and I also tried to make sure our basement looked presentable. Zach, Liam, and Rusty came to say goodbye to me, and they apologized for not being able to help me before grabbing their bikes and pedaling back to their homes. Stella came to me after them, and I could tell by the tone of her voice that she was blaming herself for my decision. As if the fun scenario she had carefully thought about had ended up with all of us feeling miserable and with my character dead.

"Hey, don't worry about it," I assured her, trying to smile. "I think it was a super dramatic moment. It was a pretty clever encounter. Besides, I've always wanted to play a Monk, heh. I guess now I'll finally be able to do it."

My attempts at comedy seemed to at least make her smile, but she still asked me not to create a new character yet. To give her a few days to think. She also grabbed her bike and left after saying goodbye.

I was suddenly aware of the fact that the only one left was Jordan, and I'm pretty sure my hands began sweating.

"I should probably get going now," she said, grabbing her bag and putting on a jacket.

"No one's picking you up?" Clyde asked.

"No, my parents are working now. I'll just take the bus."

To be honest, I wasn't totally fond of the idea of her going back to her house alone at night time. If she had a bike, maybe, but an eleven years old girl waiting for the bus by herself? Call me old-fashioned, but I didn't feel comfortable with that.

"I'll go with you," I found myself saying before my brain could fully process my thoughts. She looked at me, and I was suddenly a victim of my own insecurities yet again. "I-I mean, to the bus stop. I wasn't implying I wanted to go to your house, no. It's just, you know, it's late… and… well…"

"Lincoln's right," Clyde intervened, probably trying to stop me from looking like a total idiot, "it's not a good idea to wait alone at the bus stop."

Jordan smirked and let out a little laugh, but I also noticed her changing the weight of one leg to the other, and her hands playing with the straps of her bag.

"Are you gentlemen suggesting that you want to come with me to the bus stop to protect me from dangerous stuff?" She said, raising an eyebrow. "And how would you two help me if something happened?"

"Oh, no, I'm not going," Clyde said, raising his hands and taking a step back. "If the basement isn't in perfect condition by the time our dads come from work, they're going to kill us. Metaphorically speaking."

Oh, great, that would leave me alone with Jordan, which only increased my probabilities of acting like a major idiot and ruin it all by, I'd say, tenfold. She stared at me, waiting for an answer to her teasing question. I tried to answer confidently and smart.

"Well, if anything were to happen, I'm pretty sure I can scream for help louder than you," I said, trying to make fun of her soft voice and how she-

Wait, dang it! That didn't sound brave or smart AT ALL. Had I just make fun of myself? She definitely seemed to think so, because she let out a soft, girly giggle.

"I can't argue with that," she admitted. "So, let's get going."

I took my orange hoodie with black sleeves and a zipper in the middle and put it on over my favorite shirt. We both said goodbye to Clyde, who as soon as she turned around, smiled in my direction and put his two thumbs up.

We got out of my house and we started to walk into the thankfully well-illuminated streets of a residential neighborhood near Royal Wood's midtown. We walked past houses and sidewalks filled with trees, but just after a few blocks we already started to see low buildings, three or four stories tall, and stores on the street level. The bus stop that would take Jordan to her house was only about eight blocks away, which left us with a couple of minutes of walk to get there.

The first few seconds were spent in uncomfortable silence. I mean, it was definitely not uncomfortable for me. This might sound stupid, but just having her walk right next to me was enough to make me happy. It probably wasn't the same for her, though, so I made sure to start a conversation so she wouldn't think that I was boring or bad company.

"So, did you have fun tonight?" I asked.

"I did, actually, it was super fun. I wasn't expecting a room full of giant spiders," she said, her eyes glowing at the memory, although she then looked at me with a mischievous smile. "But obviously you couldn't let an opportunity pass to make some drama, didn't ya?"

I snorted, putting my hands in my hoodie pockets and pretending to be mad.

"You say that as if I had planned to die tonight."

"Oh, come on, Cotton-Top, you're _aaaalways _looking for a moment in the spotlight. Why else would you try to be the one to explore the bridge? Just so we could all be impressed by your bravery and strength."

My smile hesitated. Was that she way she thought of me? Someone trying to always be the center of attention?

"My armor class is the highest of the group," I explained, trying to justify myself. "And I'm the one that had taken the least damage in the previous battle. If Clyde went there and there was a trap that made damage to him, he could've fallen unconscious. I didn't do it because I wanted to be _the center of attention_."

I might have gone too much on the defensive, because her playful smile faded, and her walking became slower by my side. Dang it, I had ruined it once again, hadn't I?

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," she apologized, speaking softer. "I honestly don't know what to say. I wasn't expecting you to… sacrifice yourself like that."

"I definitely didn't think of it when I went in to explore," I admitted, trying to sound more cheerful so she wouldn't feel bad. "But hey, I guess I'll be able to create a new character. I might turn him into a coward, so he never suggests going first."

We both laughed.

"It's a shame, though. I liked your character."

"Same. Honestly, it was hard making that choice."

"Then why did you do it?" She asked, genuinely curious. "We didn't know what might have happened. There might have been a chance for us to save you."

I took a couple of seconds to consider the question, but I didn't really need them to know the answer. I had it all clear the moment I made the decision.

"Because that's what Ace Savvy would have done," I said with a big smile as I looked up at the stars. She softly nodded, smiling as well, and I could see from the corner of the eye how she stared at the red shirt underneath my hoodie, with the black logo of Royal Wood's last protector.

* * *

Oh, right, I should probably explain to you who Ace Savvy is. Alright, let's start from the beginning.

As we all know, at the beginning of the eighties there was a cosmic explosion on Earth's atmosphere, right over North America. No one really knows what caused it, or what it actually was. What we do know is that it released an unprecedented amount of energy that expanded throughout the whole planet. Most people didn't feel it but said energy caused some changes in 0,01% of the world's population. From one day to the next, these people gained abilities of all kinds, unique from each other. Before mankind was able to react, there were superheroes amongst us, or as media called them, "metahumans". Many were converted at the moment of the explosion, but in a way that science can't yet explain, the rest of mankind was injected with potential metahuman genes, which means that even today, two or even three generations down the line, there's a small, tiny chance of a baby being born with superpowers. These powers usually manifest themselves in the first two years of life.

This obviously had major geopolitical repercussions on a worldwide scale (the end of the Cold War, the stock market crash, the South American and Eastern African countries rising up as the new superpowers, and the sudden disappearance of K-Pop as a musical genre), but let's be honest, no one cares about politics, so let's just go back into the good stuff.

Superheroes started to become public figures in their cities. They became symbols of respect and hope, mayors, governors. They opened their own companies, their own TV shows, their brands. But of course, just like some decided to use their powers for good, many others (probably, and unfortunately, the majority) decided to use their powers for… not so good reasons. Supervillains appeared as well. Can you imagine what that meant for cities like New York? One day it was a normal city, the next day over eight thousand metahumans were running or flying around the streets. Most of them with selfish intentions, some of them trying to help reinstate order.

In a small town like Royal Woods, the impact wasn't as big. I think that during the early decades there was a bigger impact. But ever since the 2000's, our city became famous in the Northern United States (the country was divided into four, by the way) because of the… high index of metahuman disappearances. One by one, all our supervillains and superheroes started to disappear. It's our city's greatest mystery. No one knows why, but no metahuman seems to last for more than four or five years on the scene before disappearing in mysterious circumstances for no one else to hear about them ever again. It's why most supervillains only attack our city a couple of times before moving out into other towns or cities, even if they're bigger and hold more heroes. No one wants to take a risk, even though all the superheroes that ever defended us disappeared.

All but one.

Ace Savvy, the Night Vigilante, is practically the last hero we have (not exactly, but let's not get ahead of ourselves). He started his heroic career in the early nineties, and ever since he's been protecting the citizens of our town. He's my personal hero, my idol, my inspiration. Silver Edge was clearly influenced by him. A brave man, talented, who never hesitates to help others at his own risk, who's always willing to deal out some justice and protect the innocent citizens. Not only that, but he's the only hero that has been able to survive for a little over thirty years on this city that seems to have a curse against metahumans.

I still remember that time when Katherine Mulligan asked him why he keeps defending us, and he said something that has always stuck with me.

"Because I can. And as long as I'm able to do so, that shall be my life's command."

Gosh, I love him! I was once next to him at a barber shop's inauguration. Well, not exactly "right next to him". There were about two hundred people between him, local journalist Katherine Mulligan (she had the most exclusive interviews with him) and me, but if you look at the tapes, there's a moment where you can see my white hair in the background! Ace Savvy and me, both together on the same frame! He's my biggest inspiration, and I'm convinced that if it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have Nova and Eclipse either.

They're two young heroines, which is extremely rare here. See, in other places, metahumans start their public life as heroes or villains as soon as they feel ready. Most of them do so during their teen years, although it's not unusual for ten years old (or even younger) metahumans going around the street saving cats from trees or stealing candy. Royal Woods, however? If you use your powers, for good or evil, you're definitely gonna end up sooner or later on the long list of missing metahumans. That's why we don't have any new heroes, and only Ace Savvy remains of the old school. According to statistics, there should be around thirty metahumans in our town, most of them under twenty-five, and yet the only ones we know of are Ace Savvy and, for the past year and a half, Nova and Eclipse.

In a way, I'm glad I wasn't born with superpowers. I can't imagine how awful it must feel to have powers but not being able to use them for fear of being kidnapped, or dying, or whatever happens to metahumans. That's why I'm so glad to have Eclipse, Nova, and obviously Ace Savvy around.

They fear nothing, and they risk their lives just because they believe that's what's right.

* * *

"That's why Silver Edge preferred to die," I told her. "If the zombies and the Grick cornered you against the wall, we could have all died. But he had the option to stop it all before it escalated. Sacrificing himself, taking all the enemies down with him, and making sure that you were all alive to complete the mission and save the Forgotten Realms."

"Wow… now I kinda feel bad for making fun of you," Jordan said, giving me a light punch on the shoulder. "I think I need to start giving you more credit."

"Yeah, well, maybe you don't know me as much as you think."

We got to the bus stop, and we stood under a light post.

"What does that mean, Mr. Mysterious?" She asked.

"It means that maybe there's more about Lincoln McBride than meets the eye."

"Oh, yeah? Like what?" She said, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against the streetlight.

Her blonde hair shone like the golden fleece under the artificial light, and her eyes looked as pretty and captivating as always. I felt my throat drying, and I had to make an effort to not lose myself staring at her.

"I have lots of skills you don't know."

"I can imagine."

"I mean it. I don't like to brag about it, but I'm a fantastic cook."

Maybe it was my mischievous smile, or maybe she thought I was joking (I wasn't, by the way, I love cooking), but she let out a beautiful giggle that she tried to muffle with her fist.

"Wow, this is embarrassing. I have a male friend that knows how to sew and cook better than me. Mother would be disappointed."

"That's sexist."

"But hey, I guess it must feel worse to you knowing that even though I'm a girl I'm a better athlete than you."

I couldn't help but laugh at that.

"That's even _more_ sexist."

"But it's true."

"It is, yeah."

We shared a very cheerful laugh, and right then I felt like the king of the world. I couldn't help to show my disappointed face when we saw the bus turning around the corner. She walked away from the streetlight and fixed her skirt.

"Thanks for coming with me, Lincoln," she said, all teasing gone from her voice, gifting me with a thankful look. "I had an awesome time today."

"No problem. I had a good time, too."

"Now that you told me you like to cook, you're gonna have to make me something one of these days," she added, her head tilting forward, slightly towards the floor, but her eyes fixed on me.

"I, uh…"

What could I say? Should I say no, play hard to get? Make a joke and play along? Wait, was she joking, or was she being serious? Was she actually asking me to cook something for her? To make something for her and bring it to the cafeteria? Should I invite her for lunch at my house? Would she accept the invitation or would she laugh at me?

"...I don't know," I ended up saying, in what was probably the greatest missed opportunity of my life.

I realized right away that she was clearly expecting a different answer. Her smile hesitated, and we stayed in silence until the bus stopped right in front of her.

"See ya later," she said, not as cheerful as she had been a minute ago.

"Goodnight, Jordan."

And just like that, the bus door was closed, leaving me alone in the silent darkness of the night. I cursed myself as I turned around and began walking back home. Everything had gone almost perfectly. I had had ten minutes alone with the girl I liked, and it had been great. And right at the end… just when she was maybe giving me a chance to ask her out on a date, or at least to spend some time alone, my fears and insecurities had taken the best of me. Sometimes I hated being so shy. I saw an empty soda can on the sidewalk and I kicked it as hard as I could, trying to get rid of some of the frustration I was carrying.

When the can hit the floor, it made a thunderous noise that broke the silence of the night, as if a trash can filled with bricks and glass cups had fallen onto a gong. It was so loud that I stood still for a few seconds until I realized that there was no way that a simple can of soda could have caused such a mess. A new explosion happened to my left, and when I looked up, I saw them.

Jumping from roof to roof, running on the top of the buildings, well over the lights and concealed under a blanket of dark and mystery, there was a man dressed as a cowboy, with black, leather boots with spurs, a black jacket over a blue vest, claret gloves, a bandana covering the lower half of his face, and a wide-brimmed hat. And it seemed like he wasn't sure if he was maybe being too subtle because, just in case you didn't get the cowboy outfit, he was also carrying a burlap sack over his shoulder, filled with who-knows-what, and carrying a gun on his hand.

My muscles froze like a hare on the road, and I instinctively walked back against the nearest wall, pressing my back onto it as if I was trying to pass through.

"Wild Card Willy," I whispered to myself.

There were no doubts about it, I was looking at one of Royal Wood's most infamous villains. I refer to him as a villain and not a _super_villain because he wasn't a metahuman. It's the same difference between heroes and superheroes. Not everyone wearing a costume and going out to help others is super. For a long time, people wondered if the reason why Ace Savvy hadn't gone missing like the rest of the superheroes was that he didn't have superpowers, but his superhuman strength, dexterity, and reflexes didn't seem to support that theory.

And speaking of that…

I saw Wild Card Willy looking over his shoulder and shooting his gun. I was kinda expecting a bullet, but what came out of the barrel was a red, glowing light that reminded me of Stormtroopers' blasters. It flew through the air almost faster than my eyes could catch, but after just forty feet or so, a small, white rectangle with an Ace of Spades in the center intercepted the beam of light, causing a small explosion similar to the two that had scared me senseless a few instants ago.

The moment I recognized that small rectangle, my heart turned into a charging rhino trying to pounce out of my chest. I turned my head to my left and, moving with the determination and the agility of a panther, there he was, Ace Savvy.

Even with the dim light I could identify his dark red suit, his bracelets, his utility belt, his black mask to conceal his identity, and his waving, dark blue cape. He moved through the rooftops, keeping pace with the villain of the night, ready to deal out some justice and make him pay for his crimes.

Never in my eleven years of life had I had such a clear view of him. That time at the barbershop I had barely seen flashes of his hair or his cape. Now, I had a good look at him, full-body, running under the soft light of the stars with the red spandex like the one my dad's use on their designs. I already knew how this was going to end. Ace Savvy had put Wild Card Willy in prison thirteen different times.

Trust me on the data. I'm a mod in Ace's subreddit.

The smart thing would have been to walk back home and tell Clyde what I had just seen, so we could both talk excitedly about our favorite superhero, and maybe, while he was busy with videogames or something, I could go to my secret atelier in the attic to keep working on my ultra-realistic Ace Savvy cosplay, which I was already finishing, looking forward to using it at the next Comic-Con. The smart thing would have been for me to keep that as a memory, treasure it, and move on with my life.

But, as you'll be able to confirm the more you get to know me, smart isn't really an adjective people use to describe me.

Not wanting to miss out on the opportunity to see my hero in action, and the possibility to maybe record him on my phone, I ran after the figures on the rooftops. Wild Card was _clearly_ dangerous, but there was no way that he could present an actual threat to Ace. At no moment I considered the possibility of my integrity being risked.

Even though they were adults, and athletics had never been my strong suit, the fact that they were jumping from building to building helped me keep up with their pace. It was also pretty easy to just follow the explosions their chase had been leaving behind. I knew these streets pretty well since it was just a ten-minute walk from my house, so I could find some alleys to take as shortcuts and keep their pace. I would look up from time to time, trying to see my idol, and I did actually get to see fleeting glimpses of his cape and hair.

After about fifty seconds running behind them, I noticed they were about to reach the corner. They were both great acrobats, but there was no way they'd be able to jump from building to building across the street. Thinking fast, I imagined that they'd make a ninety-degree turn to the left. If I took the first alley to the center of the block, it would be a huge shortcut that would put me probably underneath them as they jumped from place to place.

I trusted my guts, and that's exactly what I did. The alley was dark, with stained, dirty, graffiti-filled brick walls. The heinous stench of some long-forgotten trash bags reached my nostrils, but I decided to ignore it and keep going. I got to the intersection of two alleys, that met each other at a right angle, connecting the two sidewalks.

The good news was that my math had been corrected, and I had gotten there just in time to intercept the chase.

The bad news was that the burlap sack fell a few feet in front of me, and after hearing some cursing, I saw Wild Card Willy descending a fire stair, getting right where I was.

My first thought was a word that my dads wouldn't have been proud to hear. My second thought was much more concrete and useful: "Hide". I looked around me. I could potentially run back to the alley I came from, but Wild Card was about to reach the floor, and if he turned around and saw me running… the last thing I wanted was to end up being shot by a piddling villain. My eyes focused on a trash container next to me, big enough to cover me completely, and without thinking twice, I jumped there, making myself as little as possible and trying to calm my shaking legs.

Wild Card Willy seemed to be about to reach his bag, but then a figure dexterously fell right in front of my hiding spot, and I was able to see Ace Savvy with a level of detail that I had never imagined.

He seemed even more impressive in person than he did in my posters and photographs. He was pretty tall, standing probably almost 6'3". The spandex held tightly to his muscles, showing proudly from his powerful calves, each one as big as my two legs, to the small muscles underneath his armpits. His broad chest stretched the Ace of Spades logo, all black with a white "A" in the center, and his square jaw ended on a pointy chin.

He was smiling, but he seemed to hesitate for a few seconds when his eyes met mine. Time stopped, and my heart almost did as well. I wished I had my phone ready to take a picture of him, but this was probably not the best time to ask for a selfie.

I don't know what he saw on my face. Probably a mix of absolute terror for being in a situation that I should have definitely considered more thoroughly, and adoration and fascination for being right in front of my idol. It wasn't easy to read his face, but I thought I saw a bit of surprise, confusion, and finally, resolve. The visual contact only lasted for a few instants, and he quickly got up on his feet, looking with a smug smile to where, I assumed, Wild Card was standing.

"Stealing shoe stores again? Come on, Willy, I thought you'd sworn not to steal anymore," Ace said with a grave yet charmful voice, as if he was having a nice chat with a taxi driver on a long trip to the airport.

"I swore that I would only steal to those who deserved it!" Wild Card challenged him. I couldn't see him from where I was. "The owner of this place has five employees in precarious conditions! She won't let them have their paid vacations, and she has them working extra hours on the weekends! She must pay for her insensibility!"

"You do know that she most likely has insurance for this, right? She won't lose any actual money."

"Oooh, but she will have to face bureaucracy!" Wild Card retorted as if he had just Ben Shapiro'd his opponent's arguments. "Imagine her spending six hours trying to make sure that all her papers are updated and in the clear, dealing with slow secretaries from the insurance companies! That'll teach her!"

Ace Savvy let out a soft chuckle, and I almost missed it, but as he kept his eyes focused on the villain, his right hand made a clear gesture for me to stay still where I was. Perfect, I thought. My legs didn't respond to my commands anyway.

"Willy, you know I care about you. If you weren't a chronic thief with a fascination for old western movies, we could probably be friends. But you can't keep this up. You need to stop stealing from evil employers."

"Oh, right, it's bad for me to steal from the bourgeoisie, but they can steal from the defenseless workers and no one bats an eye. Simply because the law they write protects them from facing the consequences of their treacherous acts."

Oddly enough, it was at that moment that I realized Wild Card wasn't as evil as I thought. He was more of a chaotic neutral, I thought.

"Laws are there to keep order and structure, Willy," Ace pointed out, staying lawful good in terms of D&D characters. "But I digress. We both know how this is going to end. Give up, let me handcuff you, and I'll talk to the police so they can reduce your sentence. Or at least give you satellite TV on your cell so you can watch _The Magnificent Seven _as many times as you want."

"Oh, but this time things are different, Ace," he said, with confidence that puzzled me.

There was a tense silence for a few seconds, but I noticed Ace's eyes squinting.

"Yes, I noticed. Where did you get that gun?"

"Ha! As if I was going to say it just like that!" Wild Card laughed. "Let's say I've got a secret sponsor that believes I'm right in my social justice quest. He gave me these two so I could get away with it."

"And what do they do?" Ace cautiously wondered.

"I… well, the red one seems to shoot some sort of concussive plasma," he said, sounding like he wasn't entirely sure about it. "And the green one… I don't really know what it does. But the note said that it would be my secret to success!"

There was a tense stare-off between them, and the silence was giving me chills. Couldn't Wild Card just surrender and end this before I wet my pants?

"Willy, I don't know who send you those weapons, but I don't think they're on your side. Put them away before you do something you'll regret."

"I won't have anything to regret if you just leave me alone!"

"I can't do that," Ace solemnly said. "It is my duty as a hero."

The alley was about fifteen feet wide. From my position I could only see Ace Savvy, and from the way he started to move, it looked to me like they were circling each other, keeping their distance and their eyes focused on each other. Ace was walking away from me, which probably meant Wild Card was getting closer. That made me even more nervous than that time when Rusty convinced me to get into the girls' restroom and write down Liam's number on the mirror. I felt like I was going to be caught any second now, and that would be my end.

"Leave the bag here," Ace offered, "drop your weapons and go away. I won't even arrest you. This doesn't have to escalate any further."

"And since when do you let criminals just walk away?"

"I'm not letting you walk away, I'm making a deal with you. Those weapons… I don't like this. Tell me who gave them to you, and in exchange for your collaboration, I'm offering you a chance to enjoy your freedom."

Nowadays, with more experience under my belt, I can see what Ace's plan was. He was trying to engage in a conversation with Wild Card, trying to get him to monologue and stay focused on him, to keep him from scanning his surroundings. He was trying to get them to walk around in a circle so he would end up with his back to me, giving me a chance to stealthily walk away sound and safe.

It was a good plan, but in my terrified, tense state, I didn't get it. The only thing I could see was Ace walking away from me, and I could listen to the villain's steps moving towards me. Wild Card wasn't a murderer, he was just a thief, but even then, he was carrying guns, and having him close to me was highly unnerving. I was scared, I got panicked. I could feel my heart beating like a drum on my ears, my fingers were shaking, and cold sweat was running down my forehead.

I turned to my left, looking at the alley where I came from. The corner was just about twelve feet away from me. I calculated my distances. If I could get a nice impulse, I might be able to leap forward, roll, push with my heels and get out of there in just a second. I wouldn't be giving Wild Card any time to react, and worst-case scenario, Ace would react first.

I took a few deep breaths before deciding what to do, and in an act of stupid bravery, I leaped towards the exit.

And the subsequent roll ended up becoming a turning point in Royal Wood's history.

I had obviously overestimated my acrobatic capabilities. My idea to jump forward and roll was taking for granted that I could a) be able to leap parallel to the ground and b) be agile enough to start the rolling motion in the air and continue the momentum on the floor.

I could do neither. My chest hit the solid concrete floor and my head bounced against it, making my chipped tooth closing painfully on my tongue. I immediately felt the metallic flavor of my own blood spilling in my mouth, but it was nothing compared to the immense terror that consumed me in that instant. To say that I felt frozen in place works in more than one level, because not only did I feel my whole body going stiff, leaving me motionless, but a cold sensation spread throughout my whole body as if someone had dropped ice cubes under my shirt.

It all happened so fast that I saw it in slow motion. I don't know how to explain it. It was like information had overloaded my brain, and instead of taking it all in real-time, my organism had to take a couple of seconds to analyze frame by frame the whole sequence that had entered my retina, just to make sure it was real.

The first thing I heard was a loud yell of surprise, and a much graver voice shouting "STOP!". I felt a tingling sensation on my neck, like all the little hairs under my head were charging up with static. In what little time it took me to turn my head behind, I noticed the whole alley lighting up, and when I could finally look over my shoulder, I saw Wild Card Willy's gun pointing at me, and a beam of green light began occupying my whole field of vision.

And at that moment, I remembered.

It was such a strange memory, so remote and distant that for a long time I thought it was just a nightmare. A recurrent nightmare that I used to have as a kid, during those weeks in the group home, and the first few years that I spent with my new family, the McBrides. I had completely forgotten about it, but in that instant, the memory hit me like a brick.

Quick flashes of light, two people running, the sound of my own crying, a female scream, and a blinding green light…

Even if my body wouldn't have been frozen in place, the shock produced by that memory had left me paralyzed. I couldn't react. I couldn't move. I couldn't save myself.

And it was my uselessness what caused Ace Savvy to jump. What made him stand between me and the gun. To open his arms wide. To stand there as the green light hit him right in the chest, causing an explosion that flared up and showed his silhouette through the cape.

I could only stare there, and watch in slow motion, as Ace Savvy's body fell to the ground right in front of me.


	2. Girl talks

_I want to thank everyone for the kind and supportive reception that you've all given to the first chapter of this story. And here's the second one!_

_Special thanks to RawToonage press, JamesSunderlandsPillow (the best author in this fandom, go check out his stories), Shoe2kill506th, The Siege Perilous, Jeff, allanarcher777, AuthorWriter2.0, mike204, DreadedCandiru2, Mega DMX, SGWarrior, Yellowpikmin88, MarvelMayhem, meowloudly15, NiceGodzilla, LoudAutomata16, Bmack, STR2D3PO, MrNonsense, 364wii, Tristen, 16, burtonfan422._

* * *

**Chapter 2:  
****Girl talks.**

"Oh, no… What have I done?!"

The words reverberating on the cold walls of the alley belonged to Wild Card Willy, but during those confusing and heartbreaking moments, I thought they had found a way to escape my mouth. Of course, I should have known that it was impossible, because my throat was currently obstructed, dry, and there was no way any sound could have pierced through it. My eyes had tunnel-vision, and my senses were no longer working correctly. I couldn't smell the trash anymore, I couldn't feel my icy sweat, the alley and the concrete floor looked blurry, and the only thing I could perceive was Ace Savvy's body, face down in front of me.

"No," Wild Card mumbled, although his voice sounded like a distant echo. "No, no, no, no!"

I should've been scared. Wild Card could have shot me, too. Had he done it, that would have been the end of my story. _Hello, my name is Lincoln McBride. One day I was playing Dungeons and Dragons, then I saw a chase, I made Ace Savvy get shot and I died. Cool, right?_ I should have tried to escape there or pleaded for mercy. And yet, the only thing I was able to do was falling to my knees and remain in silence, trying to understand what had just happened.

I felt like my stomach was upside down, like I was about to throw up all the Doritos that I had eaten during our session in the basement. My ears were plugged, and I could listen to my breathing and the beats of my heart as if someone was amplifying them. Wild Card was yelling, but I didn't understand what he was saying. I barely turned my head when I heard an impact, seeing one of his guns on the floor. They were weird, they didn't seem like normal guns. They were made out of a very shiny, almost white metal, with some details in green or red. One of them, the green one, had a bit of some coming out of the barrel.

Wild Card ran away. The guns and the burlap sack filled with stolen objects were soon forgotten on the cold floor, leaving me alone with Ace Savvy's body.

Body… or corpse?

"Ace… ACE!"

I was once again in control of my limbs. I got closer to Ace, and put my hands on one of his shoulders. His muscles were like stones, and when I tried to turn him around, it was like trying to move a refrigerator. My weak, untrained arms had to try hard to do it, but they did, and soon I was able to see his face.

The air that had been trapped inside my lungs escaped with relief when I saw his eyes moving behind his mask.

"You're alive!" I said, feeling a huge weight off of my shoulders.

Unfortunately, that weight settled again, ten times heavier, when I saw the tiniest trail of blood running down the corner of his lips. And also when my eyes lowered to his chest, where a tar-black stain was covering almost all of it, with a big portion of his suit torn up showing his bleeding pectorals.

Ace coughed, and moved his arms ever so slowly, placing one hand over his wounds.

"Are you okay, kid?" He softly asked.

"You're hurt!"

"Are you, though?" He insisted.

"N-No…"

He sighed and his lips curved in a smile.

"That's good. That's good to know," he coughed again, and his lower lip got covered with more blood coming out of his mouth. "Willy… Poor Willy…"

"D-Don't worry, I'll call an ambulance," I said, dipping my hand into my pockets to fish out my phone.

I was about to take it out when Ace's free hand softly closed itself on my wrist.

"No need to," he told me, doing a great effort to smile. "The gun he was given isn't like anything he ever used. Whoever they were… they wanted to finish me off."

"And w-we're not gonna let that happen!" I assured him, putting my tiny hands around his bigger, stronger hand.

I looked at him intensely and squeezed as hard as I could. He stared at me with his deep green eyes.

"What's your name, kid'"

"I-I'm Lincoln, sir. I'm your biggest fan," I admitted, trying to keep him with me.

"Lincoln. Ok, Lincoln, I need you to pay close attention to me, alright? I have a mission for you."

His voice was starting to sound tired as if pronouncing every word was becoming a struggle. I didn't know what he was talking about, but I leaned closer to him. He could have asked me for anything and I'd do it. Anything for him.

I let him know he had my full attention.

"I need you to take my insignia out of my belt. Grab it and go to the address written on the other side of it. It's a key to my house. Get in there without anyone seeing you, and look for the library on the first floor. You're with me so far?"

I nodded, though honestly, all my thoughts were tangled with each other in the confusing nebula of my head. Ace let out a groan of pain, and for an instant, his face darkened, but he quickly smiled.

"This thing I'm about to ask you is really dangerous, so be very, very careful. There's an emergency kit in a small glass box, near a fire extinguisher. Grab a bottle of alcohol, pour as much as you can on the big carpet in the library… and set it on fire. Don't take any risks. Just light up part of the carpet and then ran away as fast as you can. The carpet is highly flammable. A tiny blaze will be enough to make it all burn. Leave, and make sure no one sees you. Let the house burn to ashes."

"Y-You want me to burn down your house?" I asked, feeling scared, confused, and worried.

"There are some things in there that I can't trust to anyone."

"B-B-But you live there! You're walking out of this one! You always do!"

He squeezed my hands, and even though he didn't say what he was thinking, I could see it in his eyes.

"It's gonna be alright, Lincoln."

"N-No! Ace, you need to stand up!" I pleaded. "We need you! You're… you're our last hero!"

"Cities don't need superheroes, kid. Only everyday people, willing to help others. To watch out for their family and friends. Anyone can be a hero… the only thing they need is to have the hope that things can be better, and the will to do what's right, no matter how dangerous it might be."

Perhaps, in any other context, I would have found his words inspiring. If this was a speech on a school play, I would've stood on my feet to clap and celebrate such a nice message. It was a little complicated though to feel hopeful as I held on to the dying body of my idol, my greatest inspiration in life. His face was getting paler with every second, and his grip on my hands was slowly fading away.

Ace Savvy was dying, and there was nothing that I could do about it. Not only that but… it was all my fault.

I don't know if the tears had already been falling before, but it was right then when I noticed them, slipping down my face and leaving small, wet circles on the floor. I was having trouble breathing. I wanted to wake up from the nightmare I was living, but there was no case, the scenery of the cold, dark alley wouldn't change.

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry," I said, closing my eyes and lowering my head.

"Lincoln…" His free hand found a way to one of my shoulders, closing on it like a father ready to talk with his son. "I always knew that I would never get a chance to retire and enjoy the rest of my life in a nursery home. And you know… I always hoped that the day I had to go, it would be saving someone else. I… I find solace in knowing that you'll be okay."

"This is… this is my fault…"

"I hope you don't believe that… and if you do, I-I hope one day you'll grow up to understand this was entirely on me."

"A-Ace…"

The deadly silence of such a tragic night was broken with the incipient sound of police sirens that seemed to grow louder with each passing second.

"Someone must have called because of the gunshots," Ace said, coughing to his lungs' extents. "Lincoln, grab my insignia. There's no time. The police must not see you here."

I looked at him with my tear-filled eyes. Even someone as formidable, wise and brave as Ace Savvy looked just as vulnerable as any one of us would be on death's gates. I rubbed my eyes with the sleeve of my hoodie and moved my hands to his utility belt.

His insignia was embedded in the center. My fingers closed around it and I pulled, but it didn't seem to give in. I had to use both my hands to turn it and try to dislodge it until it finally snapped away. It was a black metal, pretty light, shaped like a spade. It fit perfectly in my hand, and I kept staring at it until the sound of sirens became unbearable.

I shot a look at my fallen hero. His eyes crossed with mine, and he gave me one last smile.

"I trust you, Lincoln. Go."

The glasses of the stores on the other sidewalk were now shining in red and blue. I don't know if my fears were justified, but for some reason, I was terrified of the notion of being interrogated by the police. Maybe I was afraid that they would arrest me for being an accomplice to Ace Savvy's murder.

Whatever might have happened, I simply began to run. I ran all the way back to my home, not worrying about how exhausted I was getting. My lungs were struggling to catch my breath, my muscles were ablaze with the lactic acid that surrounded them, and the palm of my hand was closing so tightly on Ace Savvy's insignia that I thought I could cut myself with its edge. The police never saw me, but if they really wanted to find me, they could have simply followed the trail of tears that I left behind me like a depressed Hansel. By the time I got to my house, my body was ready to pass out from exhaustion.

I saw my dad's car parked on the driveway. I opened the front door and ran towards the bathroom. My dads were in the kitchen, and Clyde was in our room. No one saw me as I locked myself in the bathroom, turned on the steam extractor to make some noise, and sat with my back pressed against the door.

All the muscles in my body were aching. My eyes stung with every anguish-filled tear that poured from them. My hero's insignia slipped off my hands to the floor, and I pulled my hair until the pain hurt more than my self-hate. I was anxious, terrified, I felt guilty, dirty. The stench of my sweating bothered me, and almost in autopilot, I removed all the clothes from my body and turned on the shower, letting the lukewarm water fall onto my shoulders and back, as if I could wash away what happened.

I took a twenty minutes shower until the water began to cool and my eyes had no more tears to cry out. I dried off however I could, wrapped a towel around me, left my clothes on the laundry basket and hid Ace Savvy's insignia. To my surprise, Clyde was no longer in our room when I got there. It gave me time to change into new clothes and try to put up a serene, calm face with no one to interrupt me.

I stepped out of my room and went to the living room, trying to think of how I could even talk about this with my parents or Clyde. Could I tell them what had happened? Would it be safe to tell them? I couldn't just hide the fact that Ace had… fallen because of me. The truth would get out soon. I needed to be direct.

Luckily for me, I didn't need to confess anything. By the time I got to the living room, my adoptive family was standing in front of the TV, and I got there just in time to listen to the voice of a news reporter.

"_...regional hospital, our trustful and active reporter Katherine Mulligan has some breaking news. Katherine, we're listening._"

I got closer to have a better look at the TV. After a brief transition, the TV studio turned into a view of our city's hospital in the background. I could see a big number of journalists and reporters, with many rushing in with their cars and being stopped by the police as they tried to get inside the building. Katherine Mulligan was there, with her hair tied up in a single ponytail and adorned with a yellow headband that looked perfect with her jacket and skirt, both in the same radiant color, making her stand out like an information muse. Her usually beautiful face was, however, transmuted in a mask of anguish, with her mascara running down her cheeks and her lips struggling to stay motionless.

The graphs below read: ACE SAVVY WAS TRANSFERRED TO ER.

"_This is Katherine Mulligan, reporting live from Royal Wood's Regional Hospital_," she said, and her broken voice was all I needed to confirm my worst fears. "_And it's with a lot of pain and despondency that I must inform our loyal viewers that the worst possible news has been confirmed by the medic team. Just a few minutes ago… A-Ace Savvy passed away due to a cardiac arrest product of unconfirmed wounds._"

My heart missed a beat, and my knees almost gave up to the weight of my body. My parents gasped and my brother let out a scream of horror. Behind me, the window that led to the street was open wide, letting in a chilly night breeze. Along with it, however, came the distant yells of our neighbors. Men, women, and children crying out to the sky, wailing out loud.

Katherine must have been really good at her job, or maybe she was too shocked to continue right away, but she gave a pause long enough for all of us to react before she kept her report.

"_The cause of death is still unknown, and as far as we could ask, there have been no witnesses. We're hoping to get more information in the following hours… but… but the truth is that, right now, those are but anecdotal data. Whatever it is that happened, our only certainty is that we've lost our hero, and this might quite possibly be remembered as Royal Wood's darkest hour. Tomorrow shall be a new day, and it will be our responsibility to move on and get out of this pit that right now may seem bottomless. Tomorrow will be the first day where we must all stand united to start to rebuild and show that our bonds as a community are stronger than the worst of tragedies. Tomorrow the Sun will shine once again. But until then, this night we will all be mourning. Let's remember and treasure all the moments we spend with Ace Savvy, and even with the immeasurable pain that it's most likely consuming us right now, let's keep a small inkling of hope and happiness because I'm sure that's exactly how Ace Savvy would have liked for us to remember him. This is Katherine Mulligan, saying goodbye to our audience, and wishing you all strength in these tough times_."

The signal went back to the studio, where the anchorman had taken his glasses off and covered his face with a hand as he cried on his desk, tears falling behind the new graph: ACE SAVVY DEAD.

The rest of the night happened without me realizing it. I cried alongside Clyde and my parents. At some point, I assume, we had dinner. I laid down in my bed, Clyde on his, but later we ended up sleeping on the same mattress, looking for some sort of comfort. Even with how tired I was, sleep took a long time to take over my senses. I guess I must have fallen asleep near two in the morning and until I woke up the next morning, my mind was busy coming up with horrible nightmares. Wild Card Willy laughing at me as I could only watch how he shot Jordan, with Ace Savvy whispering into my ear how this was all my fault. The whole scene was busy with sudden flashes of green light accompanied by a female scream of horror.

Without a doubt, the worst night of my life.

* * *

A million things seemed to happen between me falling asleep and the first hours of the morning when Clyde and I woke up. At some point, Wild Card Willy had presented himself to the police, pleading guilty of Ace Savvy's murder and accepting an immediate sentence. Apparently, the prosecutor hadn't believed him at first.

"No way you killed him, Willy! He's locked you up over a dozen times!"

But he must have presented enough data for the police to accept that, indeed he was responsible for this tragedy. He was already locked up in a cell, waiting for a judge to define his sentence. No cops showed up at my house asking for me, and my face didn't appear on TV as the responsible for the death of our city's greatest hero, so I assumed that, for now, my participation in this incident was kept a secret. And to be honest… I wasn't sure if I really wanted that to change. I had always been a pretty shy wallflower at school, but as much as I would have loved to be famous and have attention, I didn't want it at the cost of being known as the murderer of Ace Savvy.

The second big announcement that I heard when I woke up and went straight to the kitchen for breakfast was the fact that a public funeral would be happening at the cemetery and the whole city was invited.

"I want to go," I told my dads, who were sitting right next to me at the breakfast bar.

Oh, right, I don't think I've actually introduced you to my dads. Harold and Howard, the dark-haired and the red-haired respectively. One short and a little chubby, the other one tall and thin. Both of them worked as fashion designers, making up dresses, suits and all sorts of clothing for some of the most important business people and celebrities of Royal Woods. They taught me everything I know about sewing and design. That's how I was able to do my cosplays and all my friend's costumes for Dungeons and Dragons.

They both heard my request, and after sharing a look, Harold was the first one to talk.

"Lincoln… we know how much Ace Savvy meant to you…"

"And you, Clyde," my other dad said, looking sadly at my brother.

"...but we're not sure going to a funeral might be healthy for you."

"Funerals are sad, and that's no place for kids your age."

"Dad!" Clyde complained, standing next to me. "It's Ace! We have to be there!"

"Everyone's going to be there!" I added. "He deserves our goodbyes!"

My brother and I put on our saddest faces, and for the first time in our years of trying to manipulate our parents, we didn't need to pretend. Our emotions were real, and the idea of missing out on the funeral of the person I had gotten killed was terrifying for me.

They couldn't say no. A couple of hours later, after lunch and when the Sun had reached its highest point in the sky, they asked us to wear black clothes. No one on the TV had said anything about a dressing code, but in movies everyone always wore black, so I didn't find that strange at all. I just put on a simple black polo shirt and black jeans. Clyde did the same, and more than ever, we truly looked like brothers.

We got into the SUV and after some silent twenty minutes, we got to the outsides of the cemetery. I had never been inside it, but the place soon gave me chills. There were big walls of concrete, with huge fence gates that stood up like rows of tall, menacing spears aiming at the sky. A part of me was slightly scared. Why closing so fiercely a place of eternal rest? Were they afraid of zombies rising and invading the city?

Oh boy, was that an actual possibility?

My fears were soon forgotten however when I noticed the immense amount of people pilgrimaging into the cemetery. A sea of people. Most of them dressed in all black, although there was a significant number of people that seemed to have never seen any movie with a funeral in it, as they were wearing colorful clothes.

My family and I got inside, and I must admit that, once we passed the grim outside threshold, the interior was completely different. It was, without a doubt, the most beautiful and wonderful park that I had ever seen. Giant areas of green grass extended in all directions, filled with trees and flower beds of all types and colors. I almost wanted to take a frisbee and play with Clyde, but then I began to repair the immense number of tombstones that seemed to sprout from the earth, like little monoliths of a neat and magnificent marble. I also realized the beautiful sunny day I was doing, and how much it bothered me. Didn't the weather understand that we were all mourning?

It was impossible to get lost. We just had to follow the crowd that led the way in a sacred procession. By the time we reached the edge of the crowd, we couldn't see the grave. I asked my parents what they saw, and Howard replied that there was a small raised stage, with important people like the mayor and other local politicians, all waiting in seats. There were a microphone and speakers.

When the arranged time came, the mayor got closer to the microphone and began to talk. I'm going to be honest; I won't repeat to you everything he said because it makes me angry how he spent most of his speech talking about his friendship with Ace and how during his time as mayor _he_ had personally helped our fallen hero sooooo much.

I will skip to the only part of his speech that actually affected me.

"_Ace Savvy believed that the possibility of doing good was the great superpower that all of us, metahumans or not, carry within us. That our actions and wills are what define us, more than our capabilities. He believed that even the most average of us could make a difference when the time came to make a decision and that if we chose with wisdom and kindness, the results would always be good_."

If our actions define us, then I was quite possibly the worst scum to ever plant its feet on the Earth. I would have a saved spot in hell, right next to Adolf Hitler and Roman Reigns. My actions had caused Ace Savvy's death. At that moment, I was fully aware of the fact that the whole city was there because of me. A whole city was mourning a true hero because of my stupidity. Because I wanted to see a crime, because I tried to escape instead of trusting my hero, I had ruined it for everyone else.

I felt sick like I wanted to throw up. I excused from my parents, and when they and Clyde suggested to come with me or go home, I told them no, that I just needed a little bit of air. I wasn't lying, by the way. I really felt like I was running out of oxygen. And being surrounded by a crowd on a sunny day was making me feel on the edge of a heat stroke. Besides, the body odor was starting to really affect me.

I walked away from the crowd, walking on the green grass, looking for a place to stop by. Everything around me seemed to be filled with tombs, and I must admit, I was slightly anxious at the idea of accidentally stepping onto the ground underneath which a skeleton might be resting. I looked over my shoulder, and the congregation of people looked like a relatively homogeneous mass of sadness.

All because of me.

Maybe I shouldn't have hidden behind a dumpster. Maybe I shouldn't have tried to escape. Maybe Wild Card wouldn't have taken a shot at me. Or maybe he would have, and I would have died right there on the alley. Wouldn't that have been better for everyone? Wouldn't it have been objectively better for me to die and Ace Savvy to live? I was convinced that if this was my funeral, there wouldn't have been more than twenty people sad because of my death.

I closed my fists until my nails almost slashed the palm of my hand. The tears were once again running free from my eyes. If only I had been smarter. If only I hadn't been so curious… if only it had been me instead of him…

"You were there, weren't you?"

The voice startled me. For a small instant, I thought it was Jordan, although it didn't really sound like her. I turned around trying to see who it was, but there was no one to be seen. Not immediately, at least. I seemed to be alone, with no one around me, but then I noticed something on the ground. A shadow. I looked up and I had to do a double-take.

A girl was floating in the air, descending slowly in my direction. Her hands were slightly extended to her sides as if she was keeping her balance on a tightrope or a monocycle. Her long, blonde hair seemed to be the only thing tied to gravity, and even then some locks curled up in the air like they were alive. She was wearing some long, green boots, a white suit that covered most of her body from the shoulders down, with some details on the same greenish-turquoise on her forearms and making a shape sort of like a one-piece swimsuit. Her mask was pretty similar to Ace Savvy's, although this was also green. At her waist, she had some sort of golden belt with a pink stone in the center of it. And on her chest, there was the symbol of a crescent moon.

I took a step back, and my eyes opened so wide I was afraid of hurting them.

"Eclipse," I said out loud, feeling suddenly idiotic. Of course, that was Eclipse, what other green-wearing superheroes with the ability to move things with her mind did we have in Royal Woods?

She descended until she stood a few feet away from me. Of course, I had seen her and her partner Nova in television, or the homemade videos people uploaded to the internet whenever they managed to record them fighting crime, but this was the first time I could actually _see_ her, and take a look at her. I was surprised by how young she was. I knew she was probably a teenager, but she seemed to be just a few years older than me. She truly looked like a kid, and it was hard for me to imagine this girl fighting robbers and dodging bullets like it was no big deal.

"Yeah, that's me," she said to me with a smile, stepping closer and extending her hand to me. "And what's your name?"

Wow. A superhero was trying to shake my hands. Stupefied and not knowing how to respond, I simply shook the hand she was offering me. Her skin was soft, warm, comforting. I hoped mine wasn't sweating.

"Lincoln. M-My name's Lincoln."

I was suddenly aware of the fact that this was the second time in less than twenty-four hours in which I told a superhero my real name.

Eclipse's kind smile hesitated.

"Oh… so you _were _there when Ace died," she said, sounding strangely worried.

Those words took me right out of the fandom moment I was in. It's like when you're doing a lot of noise on the backseat of the car with your brother and your dads decide to hit the breaks a bit so inertia makes you hit your face with the front seats. A little reminder of reality to take you out of your fun and keep you on the edge.

That's _exactly_ how I felt. A hero had just said, confidently I might add, just as if she knew the truth, that I'd been there when Ace died. How did she know that? Had she spotted me as I ran away? Was she looking for me to interrogate me or put me behind the bars?

Her face changed again, this time looking embarrassed and, perhaps, a bit worried.

"Oh, no, no," she said, raising her hands and waving them dismissively on the air, "don't be scared, you're not in trouble. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you feel that way."

How did she know that? I didn't say anything. I just…

"Hang on a second… can you read my mind?" I asked out loud. Another moment of stupidity from Lincoln McBride. I could've just thought about it really loud to know my answer.

"That's not how it works," she said, visibly more relaxed, standing straight with her hands behind her waist. "It's not like I can read your thoughts or anything like that."

"Then how…?"

She smiled kindly at me. "Besides telekinesis, my powers let me feel what others feel. I can perceive their confusion, their anger, their fear… their sadness," she completed, looking at the ground beneath.

She actually looked really sad. And I soon understood why.

"You were getting away from the crowd," I ventured. "You could feel all those people's feelings and… you were overwhelmed."

I could see in her genuine smile that I had hit the nail.

"Wow! Are you a detective, or do you also have a superpower of para-empathic connections?"

It sounded like a joke… but I had the distinct feeling that she was being serious about it.

"Neither."

"Hmm. Then you're really smart! But yeah, that's what happened. It was starting to really get to me, so I decided to get a bit away from it. But then I was around here and I… sensed a very different emotion. Guilt. Regret. And that's when I found you. I didn't mean to scare you, I'm sorry. I just wanted to t-"

"Eclipse!"

A blinding light fell towards us from the sky, as if a shooting star had been driving by Royal Woods and had decided to crash right into my face. I mean, considering my recent luck, it was entirely possible.

But it wasn't a star; it was a _superstar_. A girl, pretty close to Eclipse in age, flying through the air with blue energy surrounding her and moving uncontrollably like fire. She landed at high speed, with her knee and fist connecting the ground in a heroic pose that made me feel like I was in the presence of an 18-level Paladin. She was wearing a suit very similar to Eclipse's, but the color accents were different shades of blue rather than green. Her torso had a light blue, that later met with some sort of dark blue triangle that fell from her shoulders to the middle of her chest. She was wearing gloves and boots with angular edges, and a mask that only showed her eyes and the space between her nose and her chin. In the center of her chest, there was a symbol with a very angular line, like a V.

Nova. I was right in front of Nova and Eclipse, the superhero duo. The two only new heroes that had decided to step up against crime in Royal Woods regardless of our city's reputation. And, ever since last night, the last two glimmers of hope in this damned town.

"Where were you?" She asked to Eclipse, sounding slightly annoyed. "I've been searching for you literally everywhere."

"Oh, sorry Nova. I just met this kid," she told her, pointing a finger at me. "His name is Lincoln. Lincoln, this is my sister, Nova."

So they were sisters! Speculations had always been thrown around, but now I had it confirmed. Nova also realized this.

"Eclipse! You know you can't just give away our secret identities! That's literally our number one rule!"

"But I didn't say anything."

"Ugh… forget it. We'll discuss this later," she said, before shifting her unamused eyes towards me. "Nice to meet you, Lincoln. Do you want an autograph or something?"

Did you ever presented a homework that you know was wrong, and the teacher smiles while she explains your mistakes, and it looks like she's being kind but you feel like deep inside she's thinking "I can't believe this idiot will be voting in a few years"? That's kinda how I felt when Nova talked to me. And yeah, I would have actually liked asking for a picture with them. Clyde had a crush on Nova, he would go crazy if I showed it to him. But now that she had put it that way… I didn't want to anymore.

"He didn't call me or anything," Eclipse explained. "I just sensed him feeling guilty."

Nova's mask didn't show her eyebrows, but with the way she tilted her head, I intuited she was raising one.

"Guilty?"

"He was there when Ace died. He feels like it was his fault."

Nova's body language had a radical change. Her shoulders relaxed, her fists were no longer squeezed tight, and with the way her back curved, I realized she was forcing a straight pose in front of me. I hadn't noticed it at first, but I quickly realized that most of the respect that Nova imposed was the result of an act.

Interesting.

She sighed, and with much more kinder eyes, she knelt before me.

"Listen, kid. This job… Whoever puts one of these suits to go out every day and every night to fight for justice and order knows about the possible consequences. Especially in this town. Being a superhero means that we're always putting ourselves at risk, and anyone that wants to be one needs to understand it. Ace did. Better than anyone else, probably. I don't know what happened last night, but _trust_ me when I say that none of it was your fault. That's just the life of a hero. Don't beat yourself up."

Ace Savvy tried to tell me the same thing. That it wasn't my fault, that everything was alright, that it had only been a terrible accident. But isn't that what a hero was _supposed_ to tell a dumb, lost kid like me? Of course, they would try to make me feel better and tell me not to worry. That's just how good heroes are. And that's precisely why I was having trouble believing them.

My emotions were pretty clear about it.

"I know it's hard to believe it now, so soon after something horrible happened," Eclipse tenderly said, understanding me better than anyone thanks to her powers, "but we really mean it. You couldn't have saved him. You're just a kid, Lincoln."

They didn't know. They thought I felt guilty because I couldn't save him. That was true, obviously, but it was only part of the truth. What affected me the most was knowing that I had been the direct cause of him getting shot in the chest.

They were right. I was just a kid. A dumb kid, not knowing what he was doing.

"I guess," I told them, not too excited. Not even being in the presence of superheroes managed to cheer me up.

They looked at each other, and Nova stood up.

"Alright. We need to go to patrol the city. Criminal scum will be eager to strike now that… Anyway. See ya around, kid."

Without further ado, Nova's body was surrounded by energy, like a blue fire. Her eyes were shining with a blue radiance, and a soft breeze began to whirl near her. I wasn't sure what the source of her power was, but there was no question about her being one of the most powerful heroes that had ever protected Royal Woods. She could fly at high speeds, shoot energy beams, and somehow she also had super strength that let her fly through walls or lift cars with her own hands. Levitating in front of me, with the wind moving her voluminous hair and the blue flames around her, she looked like a human storm.

Within an instant, she accelerated like a rocket towards the sky, losing herself in the firmament. Eclipse also lifted herself in the air. Before leaving, she turned to look at me. Her sad face told me that she knew exactly how I was feeling. She extended a hand towards me, and suddenly the collar of my polo fixed itself. She gave me one last, sad smile, and she flew to join her sister.

I was left alone once again in the cemetery full of people. Eventually, I went back to my family. By then, the tears were dry, and I had already made my mind up.

* * *

When we were halfway towards home, I asked my dads if they could stop the car for a second. They parked in the first empty spot they found.

"What's wrong, son? Are you feeling alright?"

"Are you dizzy? I have some pills that can help you with that."

"If you feel like you want to vomit, I have some paper bags and chewing gum to help with your breath later."

"We should go straight to the hospital and get you checked!"

"Yes! I'll call Doctor López's friend. What was the name of that sarcastic doctor with the cane?"

"Dads," I interrupted them, smiling and raising the palm of my hands, "it's ok, I'm good."

They both let out a relieved sigh. "What's the matter, then?" Howard asked me, wiping the sweat out of his forehead with a handkerchief.

"Well, I…" I looked at the window on the sly. "I'd like to drop off here and walk for a bit."

Clyde, sitting by my side, turned to face me.

"You sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, I am. I just want to… clear my mind for a bit."

"Do you want me to go with you?"

I smiled at him, fidgeting with my fingers. "Seriously, I'm ok. I just need some time alone. Time to… think, I guess."

Clyde stared at me, and I noticed in his pursed lips and burrowed frown that he _knew_ I wasn't alright. I shouldn't be surprised that he could read me like an open book. He was my best friend, my brother, he knew me better than anyone else. Better than myself, if my crush on Jordan was any proof. To try to deceive him or keep a secret from him was a lost battle. I was a very bad liar, and he was very perceptive.

Our familiarity with each other was a double-edged blade, though, and just like he knew me, I knew him. And in his eyes augmented by the glasses, I could see the signs of worry. It would be hard to get some time away from him to do what I needed to do.

Of course, I had underestimated just how good of a brother Clyde was.

He looked at our parents and put a hand on my shoulder.

"I think he needs some time to himself," he softly said. "Doctor López said that sometimes it's important for us to have some me-time to reflect on everything we're going through."

Clyde's appeal to authority was brilliant. My dads exchanged a look.

"If Doctor López says so…"

"Yes. Yes, alright. That's ok, Lincoln, you can walk from here."

"But don't take any dangerous street!"

"Watch where you're walking!"

"Don't even THINK about having your phone in silence!"

"If a stranger offers you candy in their white van, tell them that he can shove them up his-!"

"Howard! Dial it down!"

"What? I was going to say his glove compartment."

While our dads had a conversation about my safety and what expressions were or were not PG-11, I took some quiet moments to thank Clyde.

"And listen, I'm sorry if-"

"It's ok, Lincoln," he interrupted me with a smile. "Do whatever you need to do. You know that if you need me, I'll be here for you."

"You're the best, you know that, right?"

"No u."

After a quick farewell, I got out of the car, which soon resumed its way towards home. I sighed. Suddenly, the collar of my polo felt really, really tight, almost like it was choking me, so I took one button off. The feeling was still there.

I walked slowly until I got to the corner of the street where they had left me. As I did so, I took some sly glances around me. No one there to see me.

That's how I got to my destination, near the 1900th. I was on the even side of the street, so I got to the other side. I kept walking until I got where I needed to be. Just to be safe, I took a new glance around me, and when I couldn't see anyone else, I quickly put my hand in my pocket and fished out the object I had been carrying all morning.

Ace Savvy's insignia. My fingers were shaking as I turned it around and read the words.

"Wayne Avenue, 1939."

There I was. Large, stylized black railings separated the sidewalk from the front garden of what was undoubtedly the most impressive house in the neighborhood. An old house, which looked more like a castle. There was a curved staircase that crossed the garden, surrounding exotic and very well-kept flowers and shrubs. The building had a covered porch flanked by bow-windows. The house was made of gray and carved stone, three stories high, and endless ceilings at rare angles that crossed each other. It was also full of windows and balconies, and while trying to analyze it, I wondered if it was really necessary to have such a large house.

That questioning led me to think of Ace Savvy. If he wanted me to burn his house, I could only think that he lived alone. Would he have family? No one knew his secret identity, of course, and he had never mentioned a child or a wife. What about his parents? Did they know that their son was dead? Would they still be alive? He must have had some kind of ties with someone. And because of me, those people, whoever they were, had just suffered a great loss.

I shouldn't have stayed so long there in front of the house, looking sadly and with drooping eyes at what I should soon turn into ruins. I should have entered as soon as possible, quietly. I didn't, however, and I was so distracted that I didn't hear someone approaching me.

"Wow… I thought I was the only one that knew his identity," said a pretty familiar voice.

I turned around and, indeed, that voice belonged to none other than Katherine Mulligan. She was standing a few feet away from me, wearing some similar clothes to what she usually used on the news, except that they were black instead of yellow. Her face looked as depressed and heartrending as one would expect.

"Where did you know him from?" She asked me, reducing the distance between us.

Uh oh. Time to lie!

"I don't know what you're talking about, ma'am."

Her sad face frowned. "Don't call me ma'am, I'm not that old. And I have a lot of practice interviewing people trying to hide the truth from me, little one. You can't lie to Katherine Mulligan."

Even if she spoke in the third person, Katherine Mul- I mean, _she_ was right. Huh. Her name _was_ catchy.

"I, uh…"

**Katherine Mulligan** smiled at me.

"That tells me all I need to know," she said, closing her eyes and nodding slowly. "I see you're trying to protect Ace Savvy's secret identity. Don't worry, I've kept his secret for years. Actually, Spade always told me I was the only one that knew about it."

Spade… Was that his name? I took a quick glance at the mailbox. "S. Nifty", it read. Apparently, I had become the second person to know Ace Savvy's secret identity. Katherine Mulligan being the first.

"I… didn't know him that well," I admitted. "He saved me once."

"Only once? That's probably why he liked you. He must have been tired of saving me all the time."

I had read somewhere about humor as a coping mechanism for pain and grief. Her joke became rather sad, knowing that.

"I'm sorry," she said after a few moments of silence. "I didn't mean to bother you. It's just… it's a little comforting knowing that someone else knew the man behind the mask. Everyone is mourning the hero, but… I thought I would be the only one mourning Spade."

The way she talked about him… how she rubbed the back of her hand… I didn't like lying or assuming much, but I felt like she needed it.

"I'm sure he loved you, too," I said, trying to sound confident like I actually knew what I was talking about.

She seemed taken aback by my words, and it took her a second to react.

"We had our little thing going on back in the days," she admitted, looking at the house, "but his sense of duty and justice took too much out of his life to leave room for romance. I don't blame him, of course. The hero path is a lonely one, after all."

I didn't really know what to say to a local celebrity that had just confessed to me that she had been madly in love with the city's most famous superhero, who had died the night before. Because of me, by the way. Luckily for me, she seemed to realize how much she was sharing with a kid she barely knew. She blushed and looked away from me, visibly embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, I… I guess I needed to share this with someone that knew him, too."

"It's ok, don't worry. But I told you, it's not like we were friends or anything like that."

"But he trusted his secret identity to you."

"...yeah."

"That means he saw something in you. He knew you were special, in a way that I'm not even gonna try to interpret."

"I think you're giving me too much credit."

"Perhaps. I don't know. I just know that Spade was a very smart man, and he could see the beauty in others. Even, and especially, when they can't see them in themselves."

Her eyes moved back to the mansion, and I was starting to believe that she wasn't talking to me precisely.

An idea crossed my mind. What if I gave the key to her? She was an adult. She knew him personally. She was, definitely, the best candidate. I could tell her that Ace Savvy had given me the key to his house a while back (which was technically true) with the instructions to burn it in case he died (which he hadn't exactly said, but it was implied). Whether she decided to move forward with Ace Savvy's last will or not was her responsibility. I wouldn't have to get more involved in this case.

And yet… Ace had asked me to do it. He had delivered this mission to me. And yeah, yeah, I know, he asked me because I was the only one around in that alley. But even so, it was a mission that my hero had given to me. It was my responsibility.

"Anyway," Katherine Mulligan said, bringing me back to reality. "I'm sorry to interrupt you. I just… wanted to see the house one last time and… think, I guess."

"Yeah… yeah, me too."

"It was a pleasure meeting you. You're very kind," she said, smiling at me. "What's your name?"

Ok, was I really gonna give my name to yet _another_ very famous, highly influencer person? My parents always told me not to talk to strangers, and yet three superheroes had learned my name in the last twenty-four hours, and now a journalist was asking for it once again. No sir, I would not make another misstep.

"Rusty," I said.

She laughed.

"I met a Rusty, one time. He went to my office trying to convince me that he had a superpower to eat flowers and absorb his vital energy to live forever. Poor kid. He doesn't know that his acne is an allergic reaction to eating plants."

As I tried to contain my desire to roll on the floor and crying out loud in laughter, I decided that I would treasure that information for the rest of my life.

"Anywho. This is Katherine Mulligan, saying goodbye and wishing you the best of lucks in the tough times we're living. And don't miss my reports every day from nine to ten, thirteen to fourteen, seventeen to eighteen and twenty-one to twenty-two, eastern standard time. Goodbye, Rusty."

I said goodbye to her and pretended to be focusing on the house in front of me once again. The truth is that I just waited for her to walk away, and sneakily looked around until I was absolutely convinced that there was no one around.

Once I was sure I was alone, I took Ace's insignia once again. Purposefulness ran through my veins like liquid fire. "I won't fail you, Ace."

I pressed the center of the insignia, and after a metal "click!", the gates were opened.


	3. Puberty is weird

_Things start to pick up in this chapter. I had sooo much fun writing it lol_

_Thank you all for the kind words and support. This is something I've always wanted to write, and being able to do so and having people caring enough to read it is wonderful._

_Special thanks to RawToonage press, TheBlueJetpack, NiceGodzilla, SGWarrior, Jeff, The Siege Perilous, FanficFan920, STR2D3PO, MasterCaster, Tristen, burtonfan422, 16 and copet._

* * *

**Chapter 3:  
****Puberty is weird.**

I walked into the garden, closing the fences behind and I ran all the way to the entry. The longer I spent out there in the open, the more I risked being seen by anyone. My talk with Katherine Mulligan had left me slightly anxious, but now that I was getting closer and closer to this sort of mansion to get inside and set it ablaze, my worries and nerves weighted down on my back like a bag full of lead. I moved swiftly and trying to muffle my steps on the stone floor. I didn't know if that would help me at all, but I felt like doing this mission in Stealth Mode. Or, well, as stealthy as an arson could be. I wouldn't know, I had never done it before.

I quickly reached the main door, and that's where the first obstacle came up.

"Dang it. How am I supposed to open it?"

I tried to luck my way into it and just push. It might have been open. Nope, no such luck. I stopped to think for a few seconds. I grabbed the doorknob again, and this time I pulled. No movement at all. That would've been awesome.

Alright, Ace Savvy wouldn't have sent me to his house if there wasn't any way in, right? I checked the insignia he had given me. It didn't look even remotely close to a key. Just in case, I tried it, but there was no use.

What if he had forgotten to think of a way to let me into his home? He was dying, and he probably didn't carry a spare key in his utility belt. How could I get inside?

Well… I could break a window. He wanted me to burn his house down, a broken window would have been the least of his worries. I began to study the surroundings looking for the most vulnerable window for me to break, until my eyes landed on a circular flower pot beneath a window that led, presumably, to the entry hall. Yellow flowers, very pretty and well taken care of, decorated it. What didn't seem to be as taken care of was the wooden floor underneath it, with some scratching marks around it. Kinda as if the pot was moved around quite often…

"Seriously, Ace?" I said out loud, baffled by this possibility.

I crouched and, indeed, after I dragged the pot away I found a metal key lying underneath it. Superhero or not, he was still a human, apparently. I placed the key in the hole, and after two quick turns, the big door was finally opened. I got inside as fast as I could so no one could see, but once inside, I had to just stop and let out an admiring "Woah".

My dads made a lot of money with their job. Some of their clients were very demanding and very high class, so their designer works had pretty high fees. I don't mean to brag or come off as conceited or anything, but I can pretty easily say that yeah, we lived in a pretty comfortable economic position. This house, however, was beyond any possible economic aspiration that my family could ever have. Polished wood floors, walls covered with elegant tapestries, decorative paintings that seemed to be taken right out of the Renaissance or the Italian Baroque. I wouldn't have been surprised if the moment I walked into the room a record-player from the last century would have started playing classical music next to a fireplace.

Next to the door, there was some varnished wooden furniture, probably to leave the groceries or where Ace kept handy stuff. To the right, a small door that seemed to hide a bathroom. Right ahead, however, the house opened itself to a huge room with a cathedral ceiling, surrounded by the stairs that led to the first floor and with ample picture windows in almost all directions. I don't mean to sound like I'm exaggerating, but I think pretty much any "normal" house could have fitted in that immense room, that seemed to be divided in two not by walls, but by the change in furniture. There were some big couches and sofas that formed a pretty comfortable living room, with a fitment with an amazing TV and a console (who would have thought that Ace Savvy was a gamer?). And on the other side, a divan rested next to a fireplace, with the three walls surrounding it covered by book-filled shelves.

"The library," I recognized. Indeed, that whole section's floor was covered with a giant carpet.

I got closer to inspect it, and I couldn't even begin to comprehend how expensive such an extensive fabric would cost. It had a red wine color to it, with intricate geometric designs in gold. I stepped on it, and I was surprised by how fluffy it was. This would definitely lit up without much effort.

Thinking about my mission saddened me. I glanced at everything around me. Hundreds of books! Personal items. Memories. Did he really want me to set it all on fire? Burning everything down to ashes? I was kinda bummed out. Well, not kinda. Very.

I noticed that there were some pictures and photographs on the fireplace. Feeling nosy, I went over to take a look at them. The first thing that caught my attention was a large picture that framed some kind of diploma.

"NIFTY SPADE - DOCTORATE IN ARCHEOLOGY".

An archaeologist. It was certainly not the profession I would have expected from a vigilante, but it sort of explained why he always spoke with so much class and eloquence in his interviews and public events. A doctorate would surely require a certain level of knowledge and having a way with words, right? The other things on the fireplace were some pictures of Ace Savvy, all of them without his mask and casual clothes at different excavation sites. In every single one, he was captured holding diverse ancient objects, such as adobe vessels or stone arrowheads.

Seeing my hero in such casual situations was ... bizarre, so to speak. It was incredible to think that the most important hero in the history of our city had a parallel life away from crime and justice, in something as devoid of action as archeology, of all things. Katherine Mulligan was right; it was sad to think that very few people would ever get to know about this facet of our hero.

I shook my head, pushing those thoughts away. I had to focus. I couldn't afford distractions like these. I looked around, quickly locating the fire extinguisher and the glass box. I went over and took the bottle of alcohol inside. I just had to pour it on the carpet and light it with a small flame. It would soon extend to the bookshelves full of books and wooden walls and floors. Such a shame, I thought. All those books being burned ...

I approached the nearest bookshelf. They looked like multi-volume collections, with long rows of books with the same flat and, frankly, boring design. If I had to guess, I would say they were psychology or law related.

I tried to take out one of the books to see if it had a cover, but the book wouldn't move.

"Huh?"

I tried the one right next to it. Not the slightest movement. It was as if they were attached to the shelves. I kept trying to move the books, but oddly enough, all of them were as fixed on their place as statues. It was as if a high-level hero had sealed them with Immovable Rods, rare objects that allowed-

Oh, right, sorry. I just really like DnD.

I was starting to come to the conclusion that they were all a mere decoration to impress his guests, but I soon found out the functionality of the facade. I tried to grab a large, red book from the third shelf, and unlike the others, it pivoted forty-five degrees before stopping and making a metallic noise.

Right away, the whole room started to shake. I let out a very high-pitched and not-so-manly squeal as I stumbled back and fell on my gluteus maximus. I had to blink to start making sense of the spectacle that my eyes witnessed. Plaques of the floor began to sink and move around, the carpet suddenly replaced by a smooth, metal surface. The bookshelves disappeared through holes in the walls and floor. The rest of the wooden walls began to fold themselves in a very complex game of architectural origami.

My eyes didn't know where to focus with all the rapid transformations that the room went through. In just a matter of seconds, the living room/library had disappeared along with one of the walls, leaving in view a much wider room, with pedestals, metal tables, giant computers like I had never seen, and a collection of artifacts that not even the best museums in the world had in their vaults.

I'm usually quite slow to understand some things, but I recognized immediately what had just happened.

"The secret lair!" I said, standing up with a leap. Well, not a leap, 'cause that would imply skill and dexterity. It was more like I rolled forward until my knees collided with the ground and I could get up.

I couldn't believe I had just discovered the secret access to Ace Savvy's lair. All theories pointed to a cave in the Evergreen Forest, on the outskirts of the city. That might explain the legends about an enchanted place that nobody could ever even get close to. But now I knew that none of those theories was true. He had put his secret lair in his own house! Risky, but evidently effective.

Feeling like a little boy in Disneyland, I began inspecting all these new items that were now available to me. I didn't focus on the big keyboards and consoles full of colored buttons because, honestly, technology was never my thing. Nor did I analyze a gigantic map of the city that occupied the entire surface of an elongated and thin metal table. There was also a bookcase full of black folders with labels on the backs.

Those folders probably contained political secrets, organized crime networks, juicy data and intelligence that Ace Savvy had collected over the decades. An intelligent person would have gone there first, trying to get forbidden and obscure information that no one else in the city had.

I, on the other hand, went straight to the pointy thingies.

"The Aces!" I shouted, staring with admiration at a showcase on which dozens of what appeared to be decks of cards with the Ace Savvy badge were placed.

After so many games of Dungeons and Dragons, my first instinct should have been to check for traps, but I was a Paladin, not a Rogue, so impulsively I took the first deck on which I managed to place my hands. It was pretty heavy! It had a little buckle, so I quickly placed it on my belt. I felt like the King of the World. I could see dozens of small sheets of steel inside the lid-less deck. I tried to take one out, but they were pressed too tightly together. Remembering the key with which I had managed to enter the house, it occurred to me to press the spades symbol in front of the deck. Right after I did it, the first card shot out like a spring to my palm. I let out a rather silly laugh. I pressed the symbol again, and a second card jumped into my hand. I took these two and examined them. The edges weren't sharp, but Ace could use them as small projectiles that he threw with his own hands. Have you ever watched videos of people throwing cards, nailing them into fruits and other solid objects? Imagine what a superhero could do with cards that were really small sheets of relatively light steel.

Just to try it out, I turned on my heels and quickly and threw the two cards through the air. They flew in the same way that a helicopter piloted by a drunk baboon would have. They fell on the ground just a few steps away from me.

"Ok, so card throwing isn't my thing," I shamelessly admitted. I didn't care that I didn't know how to throw them, just having them in my hands had been the best experience of my life!

I left the deck next to the rest, but not before noticing that not all the decks were black and white. Some had red edges, others blue, others green. Explosive, electric, and smoke cards. The complete arsenal of Ace Savvy. I wasn't brave enough to grab those.

I continued to walk around the room, and I'm almost certain that a bit of drool fell from my mouth when I understood what that whole collection of pedestals with strange objects on them actually was.

"A trophy room!"

I ran to the first pedestal, on which rested what for any ignorant would have been a simple and plain bathroom plunger. But for educated men of culture in the history of the Royal Woods rogue gallery, that banal plunger was nothing but the main melee weapon of the Toiletnator, a villain with a fascination for bathrooms.

A little beyond, some sort of samurai helmet, a purple cape, and what seemed to be metal claws. Overall, it seemed like a pretty heavy-metal, feudal japan war suit, with the identifiable feature of some crossed-out cheese symbols on each item. I recognized the villain that these objects had belonged to.

"The Cheese Shredder", I whispered, remembering the stories of that vile villain that wasn't a metahuman, but simply a martial arts expert with a big loathe for teenagers, metahumans (mutants, he called them), turtles, and dairy products.

For long, several minutes, I continued to look around all the trophies and memorabilia that Ace Savvy had collected from his battles. With every new villain that I recognized, one part of my heart got more excited while another part got number. I was glad to see so many moments and stories that I had studied and read during my fan years, but I was also depressed to think that no new memories would ever be added to this museum. The apotheosis of these feelings was when I reached the end of the room, where a large display case illuminated a naked mannequin. It was there where he kept his suit. He had taken it the night before, but it would never be returned to its resting place.

I remembered my mission. I wasn't there to enjoy a show or go sightseeing. I had been charged with the task of setting fire to that place and leaving nothing but ashes. All memories, all devices, all computers, everything would end up destroyed and lost forever in the unread pages of history.

I assumed that the more I stayed there, the harder it would be for me to have to destroy that secret lair, so I immediately turned around and headed towards the room I had accessed, where the carpet was waiting to be set on fire.

At this point, you might have figured out one of my fatal flaws: I'm very curious and nosy. I can't help it. When something catches my attention, I have to look it up it, I just can't let it go. I'm very bad at focusing on one thing, it's as if my mind is constantly trying to find more things to focus on, or to be distracted with. So it was inevitable that instead of going to light the carpet up, I stopped to examine the cube.

I shouldn't have even noticed it, because it was in the other end of the room, with its small platform surrounded by books, maps and more of those black folders, but still, the red glow of the cube caught my eye. I went to inspect it, slightly confused. Was this another trophy from a villain? I couldn't think of who would have used something like this in their arsenal of weapons. In my years as an enthusiast of the superhero-story of my city, I had never seen anything similar. It was a perfect cube, about four inches on each side. I had no idea what material it was built with, but it looked like some kind of crystal. A beautiful glass box that, interestingly enough, seemed to contain a red nebula. It was hard to explain, like some kind of bright smoke that moved ever so slowly.

"Where did you get this, Ace?" I asked quietly.

There wasn't any inscription or plaque that could give me a clue what kind of object this was. I looked at the nearby folders, reading the labels on their backs. "Archaeological Records." "Egyptian Mythology." "Various cultural references". "Meteor landing excavation". "Advanced Geometry: The Fourth Dimension". "Medical reports."

I had never liked mathematics, so I totally ignored that one book about advanced geometry. I also assumed that the archeological, cultural and mythology references would be something that he actually used for his work, and probably had nothing to do with the cube that rested next to them. "Medical reports," however ... Just out of curiosity, I decided to grab the folder and examine its contents. I went through page after page, without really understanding most of the studies and diagnoses.

The things that did catch my eye were the pictures and photographs. Hooked with clips to different pages, I found many photographs of who was undoubtedly Nifty Spade A.K.A Ace Savvy. I say "undoubtedly" because his hair and face were the same ... but there were a series of photographs that seemed to be taken to two totally different people. In the first series, taken a long time ago, I could see a younger version of Ace Savvy, maybe in his late teens, looking all small and skinny. He looked like a member of the chess club with severe flu going on. And yet, the following photographs showed the same person, almost with the same face, but also taller, with broader shoulders, pectorals the size of a pillow and legs almost wider than my entire body. There were lots of annotations in red and black fibers, highlighting the differences in height (from 5'3" to 6'), weight (from 132lbs to 250lbs) and other data that I was too dumb to understand.

"What does this mean? How…?"

My head was starting to hurt as I processed this information. I wouldn't have been surprised to see smoke coming out of my ears. Was Ace Savvy actually two people? How had he changed so much? I put the folder aside. I didn't know what to do with this new information or how to interpret it.

I looked back at the cube, and... Have you ever felt the desire to do something that you knew you shouldn't do? Like, I don't know, walking down the street, seeing a trash can, and feeling a strange urge to kick it. You know you shouldn't do it, and even if there's no one around to stop you, your consciousness is holding you back so you don't. And you don't even know why you want to kick it. You only feel an impulse to do it. Well, I felt that way. That strange cube seemed to be calling me, whispering into my mind to grab it. My conscience tried to stop me, but it was a losing battle.

I just wanted to touch it for a second, what could go wrong?

I slowly leaned forward, raised my hand, and closed my fingers on the crystalline surface. It was extremely smooth, like totally polished glass. I picked it up, and as I turned it around I noticed that it felt warm, as if that strange element inside the glass was radiating a—

**ZAP!**

"AAAAAAAAAAAH!"

The cube shot a blinding spark, like an overloaded battery. The noise and the sheer amount of light made me scream and drop the cube, letting it fall to the floor.

I backed up so fast that I fell back. It took my eyes a couple of long seconds to recover from the flash, but to my utter terror, I didn't feel okay right away. I wasn't hurt, but I felt dizzy. I was shaking, feeling an electric tingling that expanded from my hand to the rest of the muscles in my body. I tried to stand up, but my legs shook like they were made out of jelly, and just standing up was almost as difficult as a whole workout. I staggered to the long table with the map of Royal Woods, on which I supported myself to try to regain control of my body. The beating of my heart rumbled inside my skull like a basketball bouncing in an empty gym.

Not gonna lie, I thought I was going to die.

I panicked. Burning down the house was suddenly the least of my worries. I didn't even remember what was supposed to be my mission. I just wanted to go back with my dads and make sure that I didn't die.

I ran to the entry, bumping into several chairs and couches. I barely noticed that, as soon as I stepped out of the library, the walls began moving again, returning to the appearance of a normal house. I didn't care. I opened the door and ran to the gates.

Unfortunately, in my state of confusion and dizziness, I completely forgot that there was a stone staircase. I failed to plant my foot firmly on the first step, and I fell forward. It was as if time slowed down. I watched in slow motion as the ground got nearer and dangerously closer to my beautiful freckled face, ready to break my nose or just ruin my day. It didn't seem like it was going to be a happy landing.

But then I reacted.

As I fell, I noticed the weight of my shoulder unbalancing forward. I didn't want to just hit and hurt myself, so I just… instinctively dodged it. I ducked my head to increase my momentum, I stretched my right hand to put it on the floor, almost like I was doing a handstand, and I impulsed myself to do a little flip and fall on my feet a few steps down below.

If I hadn't been so dazed and confused, I would have been impressed at myself, and I would probably stop for a second to think how it was possible that I had done something that never in my entire life I even thought I could try. But I didn't even realize what I had done. I was just focused on opening the door with the key that Ace had given me and walk to the street.

I had to blink a couple of times to make sense of my surroundings. The ground wasn't spinning around me anymore, but my whole body was still shaking. I walked like a drunk to the end of the street and I stared at the horizon, suddenly realizing how many blocks I had to walk to get to my house.

"Dang it."

* * *

I'm happy to report that, as I was making my way downtown, walking fast, faces passed and I was getting better. My mental and physical state was improving. My muscles stopped aching, my mind was able to think clearly, and my heart was beating normally without threatening to come out of my chest Alien style. By the time I got home, I was feeling much, much better, and aside from a headache, the only palpable sequelae that I had was the fear that still flowed through my veins after the incident. What the hell was that all about? Had I really been close to death like I thought?

When I got inside my house, Clyde was passing the vacuum cleaner on the carpet. He stopped to say hi to me, and his face was filled with worry.

"You look terrible," he said, getting closer to me.

"Thanks."

"You're lucky our dads aren't home. They would have a heart attack if they saw you like this."

"Where are they?" I asked as I went to the kitchen. I needed to drink something.

"The heir of Yates Enterprise called them for an emergency. She needs to attend an event and she needs to wear a prettier dress than the Sweetwater's daughter."

"That kid seems to always need something urgent," I mentioned, filling a glass with cold water and a few ice cubes.

"Yeah, well, we have what we have thanks to her mostly."

"Heh, I guess that's true."

I finished my drink and, I gotta say, it really helped me. My throat stopped being so dry, and part of the annoying piercing pain in my temples went away. I was still pretty shocked, though. And confused, mostly. Pretty confused.

"Hey, why don't you sit down and watch some TV?" Clyde suggested, placing a hand on my shoulders. "I'll make some milkshakes for us."

"Yeah, I… I'll do that. Thank you."

He smiled, and I felt grateful to the universe for letting me be a part of Clyde's family. He was my brother, my best friend, the person that I knew I could always count on. I decided to listen to him, so I quickly went to the couch and turned on the TV. My intention was to quickly put on Disney+ and maybe check out that new sci-fi show everyone was talking about. But as soon as the TV went on, a news channel was up, and I felt attracted to it like a moth to a lightbulb.

It was a local network, and apparently, the host was interviewing a guest. I know the anchorman, of course, but this was my first time seeing the guest. It was a man no younger than fifty or sixty years old, and he had the exact anatomy one would expect from a snowman. His big torso was as rounded as his head, which seemed to be made out of 80% fat, 10% face, and 10% baldness and sideburns. His tiny eyes seemed like dark buttons, hidden behind a voluptuous nose from which a white mustache sprouted. His chin was barely visible between so many dewlaps.

He was pretty disgusting in all beauty standards, but at least he was well dressed. He wore an executive suit in a dark blue shade, a white kerchief coming out from one of the pockets in his chest, and a red ascot. On top of his head, there was a very tall, very thin top hat that looked almost cartoonish next to his head.

I had no idea who this strange man was, but the title of the interview was designed to catch people's attention, just like it did with me: "ARE WE SAFE WITHOUT ACE SAVVY?"

"_...violence, with police sources admitting that just today, there were more than thirteen registered emergency calls for theft and assaults_," the interviewer was explaining. "_Without Ace Savvy patrolling the streets, do you think that the police and the statal organisms are prepared to keep the order in our city?_"

The Michelin man sighed, looking visibly sad and affected.

"_I think the answer to that is definitely 'no', David. It hurts to say it, especially with the friendship that I have with our Mayor, but reality can't be denied. The data is out there, it's irrefutable: Royal Woods isn't prepared to deal with crime in an efficient and safe way. Ace Savvy, may he rest in peace, was the only thing that kept us from falling into utter chaos. Now that he's gone, who can we trust? Eclipse? Nova? They're kids, David, kids. They're not ready to protect a city. I don't feel safe with just them watching over us_."

"_So, would you say it's time for everyone to panic?_"

The man laughed.

"_No, no, certainly not. I think that the unfortunate turn of events has left us in a situation where we can no longer resign ourselves to what we have, and we need to start looking forward to seeing how we can improve our situation. The age of heroes has been long left behind for us. Their acts of heroism have inspired millions, but here in Royal Woods, we can't keep putting our safety in the hands of a handful of metahumans. Why has the public accepted that our security must depend exclusively on the will of people with superpowers that they may or may not fully control? Why have we just accepted that our security forces aren't ready to deal with metahumans? I understand having faith in humanity and in that good will always triumph over evil, it's a very comforting thought. But I'm a visionary, David, a futurist. And in my vision, mankind won't need to trust in the morality of metahumans to stay safe; they'll trust themselves, and in the abilities that we all have to protect ourselves as a species._"

"_I respect your vision as a futurist, but I'm more of a 'presentist'. Having just admitted a few minutes ago that our police officers aren't ready to maintain peace and order, what reasons do the general population have to feel safe nowadays, now that our protector is gone?_"

A smile was painted on the old man's face.

"_That's the million-dollar question, David. What can we place our faith on? Well, that's why I'm here today. Tetherby Industries has spent the last two decades developing last generation armaments and logistics in the sphere of private security, and for several years now, we have been the number one choice of contractors from all over the State of Michigan to provide security measures to metahuman prisons. Our numbers are outstanding: we are, objectively, the best and most trustworthy company regarding private security in the business. We don't have any more heroes to protect us. We need to make sure that the police can respond to the threats that attack us._"

"_Are you suggesting that you want to give our police officers last generation technology and weapons?_"

"_Not only give them the weapons but also train them and make sure that they become the most efficient they've ever been. A force to be reckoned with, on the same level than the Army._"

"_Is Tetherby Industries ready to tackle on such a huge task?_"

"_We're the only ones that are ready to do so_."

The fat man looked confident and proud. His puffed out chest looked like an air balloon, pushing his second chin upwards. He was apparently a businessman, but truth be told, he looked like a king. A very cartoonish king: well dressed, fat, looking down on everyone else, talking with arrogance and as if his words were gospel. Even being just a guest, he seemed to be in control of the conversation.

"_I see_," David said, fixing some papers on his desk. "_Very well, we're now live in a phone call with our trusty journalist Katherine Mulligan. Katherine, we're here at the studio with Lord Tetherby from Tetherby Industries_."

"_Thanks, David_," said the voice that I had had a conversation with not too long ago. She sounded tense, with an edge in her voice. "_Alright, mister Tetherby—_"

"_Lord Tetherby, actually_," the man interrupted her.

"_Mister Tetherby_," she insisted, "_I understand that you're defending the economic interests of your own company, but don't you think you should at least mention to the viewers the millionaire contracts that Tetherby Industries has signed with the prisons, which costs the State an unfathomable amount of resources that are being deviated from the public works?_"

Tetherby's confident face tensed. His smile grew wider, but it looked much more forced than before.

"_I think the viewers understand that their safety is a priority in these times of danger and uncertainty. Don't all the mothers at home want to make sure that the dangerous villains and metahumans stay away from their kids?_"

"_Probably, but I'm sure everyone at home is also worried about keeping their jobs._"

Tetherby and David exchanged a confused look.

"_Are you saying that there's a correlation between Tetherby Industries' private services and unemployment?_" David asked.

"_I'm saying that, maybe, Tetherby Industries is developing certain technologies designed to replace workers, and Royal Woods may be the only place that hasn't outright rejected his business proposal. Being friends with the Mayor probably doesn't hurt. Isn't that right?_"

I didn't understand what was going on, but I sat on the edge of my seat. She sounded very serious, but her voice had a jovial tone to it like she knew something that the rest of us didn't. Whatever it was, it seemed to be something that Tetherby recognized, because he squinted his eyes and his fingers closed into a fist on the table.

"_I don't know what you're talking about, lady, but I'm sure that anything you want to say must be backed up with evidence. Otherwise, you'd be setting yourself up for a lawsuit. I don't think a woman like you is willing to get into that much trouble._"

There was an awkward silence that stretched for some seconds. I was so focused on the tension that seemed to be growing at the studio that my heart almost jumped to my throat when Clyde appeared next to me with two milkshakes.

"Here you go," he happily said, sitting next to me on the couch. "So, anything interesting to watch?"

I looked at the fat man, who had begun to argue and talk over Katherine Mulligan, with the anchorman trying to calm them both down.

I took the remote and quickly changed the channel.

"Just some boring news."

* * *

I went to bed early that night. After dinner, tiredness took over my body once again, like a giant, heavy, invisible hand pressing down on me. My eyelids felt heavy and I could barely keep them open. I put on my pajamas, and I'm pretty sure that as soon as I pressed my head down on the pillow, I was dragged to the dream land. At least that's what I think. I honestly don't remember dreaming anything by the time the stupid alarm woke me up around six o clock. It was always tough getting up on Mondays.

"_Clyde, Lincoln, wake up!_" Said the voice of one of our dads from outside the room, while they gently knocked on the door. We both let out some grunts to let them know that we were alive and awake.

I rubbed my eyes and I sat up. A second later, my eyes were open and my whole body seemed ready for action. I blinked and moved my legs, surprised at the fact that I didn't feel any numbness at all.

"Wow," I said out loud, "I feel… awake."

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…" said Clyde, still trapped in the limbo between dreams and reality, covering his face with his blanket.

I'm usually that way too in the mornings. It always took me some solid ten minutes until I was fully awake and ready to face the day. This time, however, was as if by just opening my eyes all sleepiness and tiredness had left me. I attributed it to a good night's rest. Since I was ready, and I didn't want to waste time, I just grabbed my clothes for school, a towel, and went to the bathroom.

Once inside, I turned on the shower, and as I waited for the water to warm up, I brushed my teeth. Finishing that up, and with the steam escaping from the top of the curtain, I decided to take my clothes off. As I was about to unbutton the top, though, I noticed that my shirt was tight on my chest and shoulders. It felt like it had shrunk a little during the night. Oh, well, maybe my dads had left it in the washing machine a little too long. I'd ask them for a new one if it turned out to be uncomfortable. I took the shirt off, and I was about to fold it and leave it aside when I looked at my arms and chest.

I almost screamed.

See, I've always been what many people like to call "a nerd". With everything that's stereotypically associated with nerds. I liked science fiction, reading, I do well in school, I play Dungeons And Dragons, video games, and I was never precisely athletic. I was part of the scrawny kids, the less dexterous, the skinny boys that are picked last in gym class.

Imagine my surprise when I woke up and found myself with well-defined pecs and abs, and with arms that, even though they weren't much bigger, they definitely had more muscle in them than they had last night. I touched my abs with the tip of my fingers, and I was surprised by how solid they were. I slithered my hand throughout my whole torso and core. It wasn't a smooth, soft surface anymore. It was a land filled with geographical accidents, like a valley crossed by mountain ranges.

"What the heck is going on?" I said, examining myself. My face also looked a little thinner. My shoulders and back seemed more defined. And near my waist, I could clearly see the beginning of the abdominal V that I always saw in models and Hollywood actors. I touched my quadriceps and they also seemed bigger and stronger than last night. Same with my calves.

What about…? Curiosity won me over. I dropped my pants.

"Holy…"

A light bulb turned on over my head. It all made sense now.

"Puberty!"

I was only eleven years old, but this was the only logical explanation for these… _big_ changes. I had always heard that it was a sudden process that felt super weird, and now I could clearly understand why. I didn't know how to tell Clyde or my dads about this, but I assumed that we probably would need a talk to figure this out or something, right?

I tried not to think about that as I showered. When I walked out of the bathroom, already dressed in my red shirt, jeans and white sneakers, I felt like the world fit the palm of my hands. It was hard to explain. I was in a very good mood, with the energy to do anything I wanted. My shirt seemed a tiny little bit tight on my shoulders and chest, but it wasn't uncomfortable or anything. It accentuated a little my now pubescent body, but it wasn't a big deal. And when I put on my orange hoodie with black sleeves, it was almost impossible to see that there was something different in me. On my way to the kitchen, I saw Clyde, who had barely gotten up and was on his way to the bathroom.

"M-Morning… Lincoln," he said, yawning in the middle.

"Good morning, Cadet Clyde!"

My dads and Clyde seemed surprised by my energy during breakfast. We chatted happily until they drove us to school. As I was in the car, I had to stop myself to think for the first time about the fact that I hadn't actually burned Ace Savvy's house down like he specifically asked me to. I would do it later that day. Or that night. I was thinking about it until Clyde brought me back to reality.

"Hey, are you doing alright?" He asked in a whisper, trying that our dads wouldn't hear him as they talked about traffic in the front seats.

"Me? Yeah, I'm alright. Why do you ask?"

"It's just… well, yesterday you seemed pretty weary and bummed out," he mentioned, looking worried. "You almost looked sick. And now… You look much better, but also like you have a lot going on in your head."

As always, he knew everything.

"I'm sorry I've been making you worried. The truth is that… yeah, I'm still pretty shocked by everything that happened. But today… I woke up differently. Very different."

"I understand," he said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "You're still sad, but you know that you can't just let the negative thoughts control you and that you need to put on a smile to face reality and overcome the difficulties."

I was left speechless. I kinda wanted to let him know about my puberty and how energetic I felt, but his explanation was too good to reject.

"Exactly," I said, nodding like I was actually capable of having such deep reflections. "I'm glad that someone understands me."

"Always, bro. Always."

We both smiled, and soon enough he took out his phone to show me some funny videos until we got to school.

I'd tell him the truth later anyway.

* * *

The first few hours of school were weird. Miss Johnson spent the first two hours crying for Ace Savvy, which made us all depressed. She barely gave us a couple of math problems that, funny enough, I managed to solve immediately, much faster than even Stella. My friends seemed surprised.

"Those were super hard," Zach said, "how did you do them so fast?"

"I don't know. They seemed pretty straightforward to me."

I wasn't lying. Just by reading them I figured out the relationship between the elements and the operations I needed to do. It was like my mind moved faster than usual.

Right after math ended, our next class was gym, which didn't bring me any relief at all. It was always a class where I had a hard time, and where I was destined to receive at least four balls to the face.

The good news was that I had always been pretty shy, and would only change into my gym clothes inside a booth with curtains. No one could see me as I undressed, so the not-so-little overnight changes to my body remained secret.

When we went outside, I couldn't help but appreciate like a fool how beautiful Jordan looked on her gym clothes. She literally was the prettiest girl in the world.

"Watch that drooling," Clyde said to me with a knowing smirk. Just in case, I touched my chin. No drool, it was just a joke.

The coach waited until all of us were standing in line before blowing on his whistle as hard as he could just to annoy us.

"Alright kids, Ace Savvy is dead and our lives are screwed because of it. Some of us are lucky enough to have plans of moving away from this God-forsaken town, but most of you will stay, so you need to learn to survive. From now on, this isn't gym class anymore, this is Survival 101. We'll warm up with a little fifteen-minutes run, so if you need any motivation to do it, picture a criminal running after you, and it's up to your legs to see if you can survive. Run!"

With a pep talk like that, it was hard not to take the warm-up seriously. I started to run, trying to stay on the same pace than Clyde, Rusty, Zach and Liam. Jordan and Stella were always running at their own pace, much faster than ours. Stella because she had longer legs, and Jordan because she was one of the most athletic kids in our class.

"Doesn't it… seem a little… unfair that everyone's… underestimating… Nova and Eclipse so much?" Zach asked us, finding it hard to catch his breath while running and talking at the same time.

"Yeah, I think… they'll do good… Maybe not as good as Ace, but… as long as they're around… things may not be… lost," Clyde said, just as tired.

"It's not that… I don't trust them… but they're pretty young… and it's just a matter of… time before they disappear, too," added Liam.

That was right. As much faith as I had in them, the truth is that they had barely begun their superhero career a year ago. They were rookies, and there was no reason to believe that they would be able to survive Royal Wood's curse. That was the main reason why we all looked up to Ace Savvy so much, and why he was a living legend. He was the only hero that had managed to survive. The only one we could count on, the only person that we thought would always be there to watch over us.

"I don't know if they'll be able to keep the legacy of Ace alive," I said, "but they're brave enough to use their powers for good, and they're willing to risk their lives to try and keep the rest of us safe. They fight for justice, and I think that as long as there are others like them, things can get much brighter."

I realized that I had no problem having a conversation and keeping my breath while running. In fact, my muscles weren't aching at all. I was running at a relatively fast pace, and yet I felt like I could've kept that up for hours with no problem.

"Lincoln's right… we need… w-we need t-to… trust in Eclip— AAAAH! CHARLEY HORSE!"

Rusty fell to the floor, grabbing his right calf. No-one stopped to help him.

"Spokes!" The coach yelled, blowing his whistle once again. "The villain caught you because you couldn't even win a race against a crippled snail on a salt field! You're dropping faster than Venezuela's economy! Life isn't another one of your video games, you don't have a second opportunity! You're dead, kid!"

"I-I need help…"

"What you need us to stand up and run for your life, kid!"

We just laughed. Rusty always found a way to trip over or get a charley horse during gym class. It's not that we didn't care about his health, but we were just used to it. As I laughed, I didn't realize that the rest of my friends were slowing down their running pace. Unlike them, laughing out loud didn't seem to affect my breathing or ability to run. I unconsciously went a bit faster, even, and when I opened my eyes, I was almost behind Stella and Jordan, who were in the middle of what seemed to be a nice conversation.

The former seemed to sense my ki, since she turned around and looked at me. She smiled in my direction, turned her head to look at Jordan for a second, and looking back at me with a little spark of mischief in her eyes, she hand-gestured me to go with them. I was a little anxious but immediately picked up my pace to join them, getting in the middle of the two.

"Hey, Lincoln," she said. "We were just talking about you."

My cheeks turned as red as our uniforms.

"Stella!" Jordan complained, and I could've sworn that she looked a bit embarrassed as well.

"I, uh, I hope it wasn't anything bad," I managed to say.

"No, of course not," Jordan quickly told me, shooting daggers with her eyes at Stella right before giving me a warm look. "It's just… we were wondering if you've been working out or something."

"Me? Uh, why?"

"I don't know, maybe we're crazy, but we seemed to notice that your shoulders look bigger," Stella admitted.

And in a gesture so audacious that left me more breathless than the running, she stretched a hand and squeezed my right biceps. I immediately tensed my arm, outright stunned at that, and she whistled with a wolfish grin.

"Yo! Jordan, check this out!"

"You're nuts."

"You've got to feel this!"

"Why don't you ask the coach to let Lincoln go with you to the nurse and hide in a closet if you want to touch him so much?" Jordan said, rolling her eyes, doing her best not to look at us and sounding pretty pissed off.

I felt on the verge of passing out. Stella was a great friend, and from time to time she might even joke with us with romantic hints here and there, just for fun. But one thing was for her to fool around and a very different one was for Jordan, the girl I had a crush on, made a joke about me and another girl locked in a closet.

Stella didn't seem to care at all. "Come ooooon, you know you want to~."

"Ugh."

Jordan picked up the pace, running away from us. I saw her getting farther away from me like a loved one boarding on a plane. Her braided hair swung from side to side with each step she took, like a precious sandy blonde pendulum. I couldn't help but feel a bit bad. Should I have said something? Was it my fault?

Stella clicked her tongue, and when I turned around to look at her, she was also staring at Jordan, although she was smiling.

"She was the one that noticed that you seemed a bit different," she told me, leaning down to whisper those words into my ears.

"Uh… uh… uh…"

She giggled.

"Alright, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass you. Anyway, let's talk about DnD. I don't want to spoil anything, but let's say there's a chance that Silver Edge survives. It's not for sure, though. You took a big risk and you need to face the consequences. So I'm going to need you to, just in case, make a new character for our next session. Maybe they might become your new hero, or maybe you won't have to use it at all, the dice will tell. Is there any class or something that you'd be interested in playing?"

For the rest of the warm-up, we discussed a character creation, even though my head was busy thinking about the fact that Jordan had noticed that I looked different.

By the time the coach blew his whistle, the main concept of Syaoran Fang, a Shaolin monk that could use his inner ki to control the elements, was almost done.

"Alright kids, now that you're all warmed up it's time for survival lesson _número dos_. Sometimes you'll be cornered by a villain and there won't be any other choice than dodging to stay alive. So let's get ready to play the most extreme dodgeball game of your lives!"

Dodgeball. Great. Two teams of ten people, give balls, only one survivor. I was always one of the first ones to be eliminated. I didn't like the game that much.

We divided into two teams as usual. My friends and I plus a few others against the rest of the class. I took a look at who was on the other side. Collin, Dylan, Mitch, Cody, Geoff, Aly, Valerie, and a few other athletic kids. Oof. Our only hopes were Jordan and Stella.

"Scorpion formation?" The latter suggested.

"Deal," we both said.

When we heard the whistle, we all launched to the balls placed at the center of the court.

I tried to dash as fast as I could, and I was surprised at how much faster than anyone else I was. I grabbed the first ball I could put a hand on and threw it to the closest person on the other side.

"You're out, Cody!" Coach yelled. I still had enough time to grab a second ball and hand it over to Jordan, who grabbed it and managed to eliminate someone. Unfortunately for our team, the other three balls went to the other side, and two of our classmates were eliminated as well.

We retreated to out scorpion formation, and for a couple of minutes, things were alright. We dodged what was thrown at us, let Jordan and Stella catch the balls and then they would try their best to eliminate the other team. I noticed, however, that my friends seemed to react waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too slowly. Stella's indications were coming in super late, and many times I found myself being the only one that moved for several seconds until they reacted. So what to me seemed like extremely easy and avoidable shots, turned into dangerous situations for my friends.

When a sudden ball came flying from the right, I saw it much earlier than anyone else.

"Clyde, down!" I tried to warn him.

"Huh?"

BLAM!

He couldn't even react.

"Right!" I yelled, grabbing Liam by his shirt and effortlessly moving him just in time for him to dodge a shot. Unfortunately, Zach didn't understand my warning until it was too late.

With a few players less than the other team, they began abusing us. We were so busy dodging balls that we couldn't find time to counter. Or at least, Stella and Jordan couldn't. I felt that I could have had several opportunities to step forward and catch a few balls and maybe try to eliminate someone, but our strategy was always centered around us boys dodging, Stella catching, and Jordan shooting. But Stella couldn't catch any, and Jordan wasn't getting any ball from us to attack.

She managed to eliminate a few, but soon we were at a disadvantage of three versus six. The odds weren't in our favor.

"Stella, you need to catch a ball if we want to win this game!" Jordan told her, as competitive as always.

"It's not like I'm not trying! But they're too many, I can't stop to—!"

"Watch out!"

Three balls were coming in our direction. I jumped to a side, Jordan dropped to the floor, but Stella was a pretty tall target.

"Stella, out!" The coach said, and our friend left the field rubbing her stomach, where the ball had hit her.

"Alright Lincoln, it's just you and me," Jordan told me, looking anxious. "Any idea?"

"Yeah. Don't get hit."

"You're such a strategist, Loud."

Truth be told, there wasn't much to do. Now that Stella was out, I assumed that it was my turn to take that role.

When a new round of balls flew towards us, I noticed the trajectory and the strength with which they were flying. Don't ask me how, but I had time to figure out the best intersection points, and I instinctively knew that I needed to jump to my right —almost in front of Jordan— which would leave me in a perfect spot to grab one and deflect a second one.

Actually, the two balls were pretty close to each other. Could I grab one with each hand? Something inside told me that I could.

This all happened inside my head in less than a second, by the way. It's not like I was actively thinking about it. My body just seemed to take all these decisions on its own.

Jordan let out a small and adorable surprised squeal when I jumped in front of her.

"Lincoln, watch out!"

The two balls went straight to me, and without even breaking a sweat, I stopped them midair with my hands.

Everyone gasped when they saw what I did, and it even took the coach a few seconds to blow his whistle.

"Uh, Dylan, Aly, you're both out. Get out of the field!"

"Quick, to Geoff," I told Jordan, giving her one of the balls as I took a step forward and took a shot for the first time in months.

Maybe I should have done it more often, because my ball went straight as an arrow in a perfect trajectory from my hand to Collin's chest, knocking him down a few feet behind.

"Out!"

Jordan also took a shot, and a stunned Geoff couldn't dodge it in time.

"You're out! Two versus two! Let's go!"

Only Mitch and Valerie on the other side. Things were now looking good to us. I just needed to leave Jordan free so she could eliminate them. We didn't have any balls on our side, so if they attacked us, we were helpless.

"I'll distract them," I told my friend, and I ran to the other side. "Hey! Over here!"

I started to move my arms around, trying to catch their attention. The two of them took the first balls that they found, and without hesitation, Mitch threw it to me. Val also began moving her arm, and I could see in my mind the trajectory her ball would have. Deciding that my best shot was to jump high to dodge both balls —Val's seemed to be heading to my feet—, I got a little impulse and then jumped, starting to turn around to get a better positioning when I fell.

However, Val seemed to change her plans, and at the last second, she stopped herself, turned around, and threw Jordan a ball. My friend, unfortunately, was too distracted looking at me jumping. The ball seemed to be going straight to her face.

I couldn't let her be hit on the face! I didn't want her to be hurt or eliminated. So in the middle of me turning around mid-air, I stretched a hand. I grabbed the ball —eliminating Mitch in the process—, and taking advantage of the momentum, I twisted my arm and threw it as hard as I could in Jordan's direction.

It flew across the whole gym until, just a few feet away from her, it perfectly intercepted Val's shot. Jordan seemed to be frightened by the sound of two balls crashing mid-air in front of her, but she soon got her head back in the game. She grabbed the ball I threw there, which had ended up bouncing right in front of her —I can't say I did it intentionally, although a little part of my brain had considered that possibility—, and she quickly threw it with the expertise of a trained sniper, eliminating the last rival.

The entire class was left speechless. The coach didn't even blow his whistle to announce the two eliminations or the end of the game. Everyone, including Jordan, seemed too busy looking at me like I had grown a third arm on my back.

"Uh…" I began, rubbing the back of my neck, confused at embarrassed at suddenly being in the spotlight, "did I do something wrong?"


	4. Dealing out some justice

_S*!t hit the fan way too quickly lmao These past few months were pretty harsh, I had to completely reorganize my life. Between health issues in my family and the great impact I've suffered with everything regarding the Covid-19, my life was basically stopped for several weeks. It's still is pretty much paralyzed, but at least I've found some sort of comfort and escapism in writing._

_Special thanks to The Siege Perilous, Jeff, NiceGodzilla, burtonfan422, STR2D3PO, FanficFan920, 16 and Tristen._

_And my sincerest apologies for taking so long to write lol You guys are the best, I'm lucky enough to have the best readers in the world._

* * *

**Chapter 4:  
****Dealing out some justice.**

Are any of you _really_ good at something? Anything. It could be a sport, playing an instrument, or some talent that you're particularly proud of. In general, I don't stand out in anything in particular, although I guess I can say I'm very competent when it comes to videogames, especially if they're fighting games. I've played countless hours of _Super Dragon: Budokai Tenkaichi 3_, and it's one of those games where I feel like I can beat anyone. I have great skills to chain up combos, time my super moves, my parries, and getting out of tough spots.

The curious thing about being really good at something is that there comes a time where you do things without actively thinking about them. Whenever I'm playing against Clyde or any of my friends, I don't have to stop every second to think about all the combinations of buttons I need to press in the exact order and instant to counter a combo. I've got that incorporated in my muscle memory and it doesn't seem like a big deal to me. I only really stop to think about what I've done once someone else mentions it. It's only then when I'm like "Huh, that's right, this thing I'm doing is actually pretty awesome". If no one would point it out to me, I'd probably not even realize it.

Following the same logic, perhaps I would have never realized just how absurd my show of dexterity had been during gym class if I didn't have all my friends going bananas trying to figure out how I had done it.

"That was AMAZING!"

"I'd never seen anyone dodging like that!"

"It looked right out of a darn movie!"

"How'd you do that?"

"I… just did it."

It was true. All my actions had seemed pretty straightforward in my mind: duck, dodge, jump, turn, throw. I caught and threw that ball in the middle of the air because I didn't want Jordan to get hurt. I wasn't trying to do a crazy somersault or anything like that. For me, it had been a simple process: "How can I intercept that ball? Oh, sure, like this".

Only now, after showering and as we walked towards our classroom for the last couple of hours of school for the day, having all my friends commenting on what I had done, I was starting to understand that something wasn't quite right. I had never been good at dodgeball. Like, ever. I always embarrassed myself and was between the first couple of eliminated guys. I seldom managed to take someone equally as bad as me on the other team, but I never had any moment of dexterity like what I had shown earlier.

I mean, come on, I couldn't even jump a rope five times in a row. How did I do those crazy stunts? Why was everything becoming so easy for me all of a sudden? Not only dodgeball, but I'm also talking about math homework and geography and everything that I did that morning. I wasn't a bad student or anything, but I was also not a genius to have all the answers come to my mind right away like I had a privileged memory and mind. Was this related to my physical changes as well? Everything was happening too fast, and I wasn't sure I would be able to deal with it right away. My life seemed to be getting out of my control. Just the day before I had had to attend to Ace Savvy's funeral right before going to his house where—

The answer hit me harder than any dodgeball had ever done before. I felt my stomach twisting in a knot, and my now swift mind was putting all the pieces of the puzzle together.

The cube. Whatever it was, it had released something into me the moment I touched it, something that started a chain reaction of some sort. I remembered those old photos of Ace and his two very different bodies, one much more developed and athletic than the other. I had quick flashes in my mind of those folders next to the cube. Besides mythology and history, it mentioned excavations. He was an archeologist…

The narrative wasn't complete in my head, but I thought I had a solid hypothesis: Nifty Spade had participated in an excavation where he had found that cube, and after activating it just like I had done, he turned into Ace Savvy.

It was so crazy and unlikely… that it even made sense. Was it that the reason why he had never been affected by Royal Wood's curse? Maybe he didn't disappear like every other hero because, unlike them, he wasn't metahuman from birth. That idea sparked a memory in me. Ace would always, constantly repeat that _anyone_ could be a hero.

"_Being born with powers, well, that's something you can't control nor choose. But being a hero is more than being a metahuman or not: being a hero boils down to simply making the right choice whenever we're faced with one._"

Suddenly, all his talks and declarations throughout the years made more sense. He wasn't born as a metahuman, he had turned into a superhero much later in life. And now I carried that same gift.

I had my own superpowers now.

Were they superpowers, though? As far as I'd noticed, they were just some amazing reflexes and an increase in my dexterity stat. Was that enough to be a hero? I wasn't sure it was. Maybe it had only awakened some sort of Ultra Instinct inside of me. I couldn't know, but for the rest of the class, I couldn't focus on anything else. I could only think of what that would mean fo me if it was true.

Sometimes… sometimes I felt jealous of people being born as metahumans. Who wouldn't? Who wouldn't be able to have some amazing secret power that makes you special and unique? Who wouldn't be thrilled to have a superpower that would let you help the rest of humanity? Every now and then I wondered why I was just a simple person, with nothing special on me except for my white hair. And now… now I had finally found something spectacular that set me apart.

As always, it was Clyde the one that shook me out of my thoughts.

"Together as always?" He asked me from the seat to my right, poking my elbow with his pencil.

"Huh? What?"

"The project," he said, pointing at the chalkboard. It was only then when I noticed that, apparently, our teacher had explained some sort of science project that we would all be doing in pairs. "It's going to last for a couple of months, so we'll have a huge advantage of living together and stuff."

"Oh. Well, yeah, sure, we-"

"Actually," said Stella, turning around from her seat right in front of mine, looking at us McBrides with a funny look in her eye, like she knew the punchline to a joke she hadn't told us yet, "I was going to ask Clyde if he wouldn't mind doing this project with me."

"What?" We both said.

Ever since first grade, Clyde and I did all our group projects together. It was our tradition.

"Yeah, well, I just think it's healthy to shake things up every once in awhile, changing our partners and leaving our comfort zone," she said, almost as if she had planned out a speech.

"Well… Doctor Lopez does say the same," Clyde mentioned, "but I don't know, why the sudden interest in doing it with me?"

"Wait, what?" Jordan said right then, sitting as always in front of Clyde and to Stella's right, whom she looked at confused. "You don't want to do this with me? Then who am I supposed to do it with?"

Clyde and Stella shared a look, and for some reason, my brother gave her a wicked smile.

"You know what? I think you're right, changing the routine is a very healthy thing to do. Let's do it!"

"That's what I'm talking about, McBride!" Stella said, bumping fists with my brother.

"Wait, wait, what am I supposed to do then?" I asked, still confused.

My friend giggled.

"I suppose you'll have to find someone who doesn't have a partner. Hey, Jordan, you don't have a partner either, do you?"

My heart started running on the treadmill that my chest had become, almost like a raging bull, shaking the whole place around. I squeezed my pencil so hard I could feel it breaking in two inside my fist. That's funny, that had never happened before. I didn't care, however, for my eyes were fixed on Jordan, on her delicate golden braid, her sunflower-like yellow shirt, her emerald eyes. I may have had powers, but she was still my kryptonite.

Her eyes squinted only there was only a tiny groove from which she seemed to be studying our two friends. After a few seconds of intense evaluation, she rolled her eyes and smiled in my direction.

"I suppose we're a team now, Lincoln."

"Yeah. I suppose we are," I said, doing my best to keep a neutral face as if I was in the final table of a poker tournament.

There were only about twenty minutes left in class, and up until the bell rang to set us all free, my keen mind spent them coming up with scenarios where Jordan and I had an awesome time together, studying and falling in love.

By the time we walked out of the building, Rusty, Zach, and Liam joined the rest of us, and Stella took the opportunity to try to organize our next DnD session.

"I was thinking, since tomorrow is Secret Identity Day, what if we hang out early to continue with the campaign?"

"I can't in the morning," Clyde said, "my parents are taking advantage of the holiday to get my eyes checked."

"What about the afternoon?" Liam suggested.

"Yeah, the afternoon would be much better for me."

"That would give us time to hang out and figure out what we want to do for our project," added Zach, looking excitedly at Rusty. "I was thinking of doing an essay on aliens and their relation to the appearance of metahumans."

"Aw, I wanted to sleep late in the morning," Rusty begrudgingly admitted.

Jordan, who was walking on the other extreme of the line we were all walking in, leaned forward so I could look at her.

"Do you have any plans, Lincoln?"

I was about to say that I didn't even before she finished asking it, but then I remembered Rusty's advice on female psychology and decided to play hard to get.

"Me? Well… I don't know, I do have some stuff to do. You know… hard, uh, stuff. Complicated. Men stuff. Why are you asking?"

I went along with my attempt at fooling her by putting my arms behind my head like I was super relaxed, but it turned out to be uncomfortable, so I crossed them over my chest, but that made me look like I was closing myself in my personal space, so I tried to put my hands on my hoodie's pockets, and by then I had managed to look like an idiot. Deception check: natural one.

"Well," she said, stifling a laugh, "if you _hard, complicated men stuff_ don't take you too long, we could also hang out to define our project."

"You know what? I think I can make some space in my agenda for you."

"I'm flattered."

"Where do you want to go?" I asked. I was starting to get anxious thinking of all the things that could go well, and everything that could go wrong.

"What about the library?" She suggested with a smile.

My reaction wasn't as positive.

"The library? That sounds a bit… boring. Wouldn't it be better to do it in one of our houses?"

If I was lucky, maybe she'd invite me over to her house, and I would finally meet it. We knew it was in a pretty luxury neighborhood, but as far as I knew, Stella was the only one that had ever been invited there.

Her face, however, suddenly wore a mask of worry. She straightened her back and leaned back a bit, hidden from my gaze by the rest of our friends.

"I, uh, I don't think we might be able to do it in our house, and I wouldn't want to bother your parents…"

"Jordan, you'd never be a bother!" Clyde said, beating me to it. "I'm sure our parents would love to have you, they'll probably cook something super nice for lunch if you're there."

"Yeah. Plus, I'm sure they'll thank you for giving them an excuse so Lincoln cleans up his room," Stella jabbed, making everyone laugh except for me.

"Well, alright. Your house, then," Jordan conceded.

Soon we reached the parking lot. Rusty, Stella and Zach's parents where there, waiting for them. Jordan would take the bus back home, and Liam had left his horse grazing a man's backyard in front of the school. The guy would give him five dollars for having the horse mowing the grass, but it was Liam's responsibility to clean up after the mess.

Clyde and I didn't live too far away from school, and since our parents were at work at this time of day, we took the freedom of walking back home. And when I say "freedom", I really mean it. Our dads are the best guys in the world, no doubt about it, but they worry too much about is, and we seldom have the opportunity to do anything without their direct supervision. Even when we're home alone, we usually have a long list of chores to do and dozens of restrictions on what we're allowed to do without them there. Having some time for ourselves, not worrying about our responsibilities or chores was always welcomed.

It was all peace and quiet as we walked down the streets heading to our home until we randomly walked right into the darkest, most dangerous side of our town.

"NOOO, PLEASE!"

The desperate cry of a woman reached our eyes, petrifying us right away, like a banshee's wail. About two hundred feet away from us, two men had surrounded a lady that seemed desperate to put herself between them and a small, terrified little girl that was holding on to her legs. They were all screaming at each other, with the lady begging to be left alone and the men aggressively demanding something from her. I couldn't pick up what they were saying from where I was. I was stunned, terrified.

And then, one of the men took a step back and threw a fist that hit the poor woman squarely on the face. I don't think the dry sound of the impact actually reached my ears, but I could perfectly hear it. She collapsed to the ground, probably passed out or on the verge of it, and the girl began howling in terror. Not caring about it at all, one of the men grabbed the woman's purse, and the other one placed a hand on the child's head.

As if it was all a dream, time seemed to stop. I got an adrenaline rush when I saw that man that had just decked a woman get closer to the kid. Every muscle in my body seemed to tense, ready to act, waiting for a call to action. My body was ready to go, to yell, to run to defend the defenseless child… but my mind wasn't. I felt an instinctive feeling to protect her, to help her, like there was a thin rope attached to my chest and someone was pulling it towards the crime I was witnessing. Trying to get me to go there, driving me to the person that needed me the most at that instant. The feeling was strong, but so was my fear. I stood there, simply staring at how the guy took something away from the little girl, who didn't even offer any resistance as she cried out loud.

"HEY! STOP THERE!"

A man got out of a store on the other side of the street, yelling and starting to walk to the two thugs that ran right away like the cowards they were.

Unfortunately, they decided to run right into our direction.

"Run!" Clyde yelled, crossing the street right away, not even looking to the sides with how fast he was moving.

I stood in my place for some seconds, looking at the two guys that were getting closer and closer to me. They were both big and sturdy. I couldn't tell how much was muscle and how much a slight overweight, but they were two locomotives moving to my position. They were dressing similar outfits, both with worn-out jeans and hoodies, even though the day wasn't that warm. One of them was bald, wearing the grey hoodie, and the other one had a black beanie, the same color as his hoodie. From where I stood, they looked like a rhino and a bull charging at me.

My fight or flight reaction finally kicked in, going for the latter. I ran back from where I came from as fast as I could, and I turned into the first alley that I found. There was a trash container there, but having learned my lesson about hiding behind them, I searched for an alternative. To my right, there was a small, four-stories building with a set of emergency stairs that led to the alley. Unfortunately, the last section wasn't set, so it couldn't be accessed from the streets. However, thinking fast, I noticed that the container was relatively close to it. In any normal circumstance, what I wanted to do shouldn't have been possible, but then I remembered what happened in gym class and decided to take a shot.

I ran at the container, jumping at the last second. I can't explain how, but I managed to get to the top of it, and from there, I dashed next to the wall to the stairs. I jumped from the edge of the container, my shoulders almost scraping the dust out of the brick wall, and when I stretched my hand, I managed to close it to one of the steel bars from the metal staircase. With only one hand, I was able to pull myself up enough to reach the first rest, and just in case, I climbed to the second floor and laid down on my stomach, hoping that the stairs would hide me.

I prayed for that to be the case and I was really out of danger, especially when a few seconds later the two thugs got into the alley. I held my breath, not wanting to even move as the two stopped right beneath me.

"Fuck, that hurt," said the bald one, flicking her wrist. "But not as much as it hurt her, ha."

I could see them through the small slits of the wire mesh. A drop of sweat began sliding down from my forehead into my nose. I had to cross my eyes to look at it when it reached the top, and I panicked thinking that it might drop over the bald man's head, alerting them of my presence.

As they kept talking, I tried my best to stretch my tongue and catch it.

"That guy's gonna call the cops, we have to go."

"They won't get us, police stations are completely collapsed."

"What if those Nova and Eclipse bitches come after us?"

"They… Come on, what are the chances-?"

"Listen, I can't go risk going to jail again," the guy with the black beanie said. "You go to the avenue and I'll go to the stadium. Lowkey."

"Where do we meet up?"

"The bridge in the park, at eleven. We'll divide the stuff there."

"Alright, I'll-"

"Don't even think of keeping money from that wallet, you hear me?"

"Whoa, just take it easy, man! What kind of criminal do you think I am?"

"Just making sure. Alright, let's go."

And after being there for just a few seconds, they both walked away, turning in different directions when they reached the other side of the street.

As soon as they left, I finally breathed again. It was like my soul was coming back to my body. My muscles released all the tension they were holding. It had been a terrifying experience, especially because my mind couldn't help itself and compared the situation with-

A loud ringtone blasted right next to me, scaring the heck out of me. I was about to instinctively punch the air when I realized it was just my phone. Clyde was calling me.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked as I picked up the call.

"_Lincoln! Where are you?! Are you okay?! I turned around and you were nowhere to be seen!_"

"I… yeah, sorry, I'm okay."

He let out a relieved sigh. "Where are you?"

I looked around me. "I'm hiding," I said.

Apparently, it was the only thing I was good at.

* * *

When we got home, the first thing we did was to check the list with our daily chores. As always, we divided them between us. Clyde would do the laundry, and I'd vacuum the living room. The house needed to be perfectly clean so our dads wouldn't get a panic attack when they got back from work. As I got everything ready, I decided to leave the TV on a music channel, so I could have some background noise to make the cleaning easier to get through. For several minutes, I systematically went over every square inch of the carpet, doing my best to leave it impeccable. The music was pretty cool, with lots of pop music and the latest trends, but then they started showing trap music. Nothing wrong with it, but our dads didn't like it when we listened to those lyrics.

I started zapping through the channels looking for something entertaining. And if you've been paying attention to my story so far, you probably know what made me stop. Do you? Of course you do: the local news channel.

Katherine Mulligan was standing on the outsides of a clinic, interviewing a woman in her thirties, blonde, with long, thin hair and dressed casually. The thing that caught my attention was the fact that she was carrying a little girl, also blonde but with shorter hair, cuddled up against the woman's neck, as if she was trying to stay hidden from the cameras.

Oh, and also the big, swollen, black eye on her right.

"_...attacked you?_" The journalist was asking.

The woman shook her head.

"_I told the police everything I could remember. I can only wait for them to do their job, now_."

"_What did these men took from you_?"

"_My purse, where I had some cash, my phone, and some work papers, but what hurts the most is that they took my daughter's headphones_," said the mother, on the verge of tears, clinging onto the girl. "_She's deaf without them, she needs them to hear. It's too expensive and I can't afford to buy a new pair. Please, if anyone finds it, or if those men are watching this, I don't care about the stuff you took from me, but they can't do anything with the headphones, please give them back so my daughter can hear her mommy. Please, I'm begging you!_"

Katherine Mulligan asked for the address anyone could give the headphones back if they found them, and the woman promptly answered her. I couldn't stop looking at the little girl. She looked absolutely terrified, vulnerable, disoriented.

"_Do you think insecurity reigns on Royal Wood's streets nowadays?_"

The woman sighed, her defeated eyes meeting Katherine's.

"_Ace Savvy's no longer here to protect us. We regular citizens have lost all hope_."

Katherine Mulligan thanked the woman for her time, wished her a quick recovery, and moved on to a short editorial about the exponential increase in crime rates in such a short period of time. I knew that a big part of it was a kind of hyperbole to create sensationalism… but the truth is that, even so, every new word I heard added a ton to the weight I carried on my shoulders.

If Ace was still alive, maybe those burglars wouldn't have dared to assault someone in plain daylight. If Ace was still alive, maybe he would have been there to stop them. Maybe not, perhaps he couldn't have prevented it, but maybe he could have, and it was my fault that the hope that he would had been taken away for the entire city.

The image of that scared little girl without her headphones would stay with me for the rest of the afternoon as I did all my chores and homework. It was still fresh in my mind when my parents came back, and even though I tried, I couldn't stop thinking about it.

Guilt took me, prisoner, weighing down on me as if I was chained to heavy rocks, and I was only able to partially relieve it when I took a decision so crazy and stupid that I had to focus entirely on it to plan out the logistics.

* * *

At home, we always had an early dinner, and we would go to bed around eight or eight-thirty. During our meal, I intentionally mentioned how tired I was feeling, and I faked to agree when my dads suggested that I needed to rest. After washing the dishes, I went straight to my room, changed into my pajamas, and laid down in bed. Clyde followed my steps a few minutes later, and once we turned off the lights, it was just a matter of keeping my eyes closed and pretending to sleep.

After waiting for fifteen or twenty minutes —time moves slower when all you're doing is waiting—, my brother's breathing let me know he was asleep. He was a pretty light sleeper, so ever so carefully, I got out of bed, placing a pillow under my blankets as a decoy.

Turning on my stealth mode, I sneaked out of my room, tip-toeing through the hall as silent as a ghost until I reached the linen closet where we had the access to the attic. My family was extremely organized and tidy, and every corner of our home looked top-notch, although a big part of that had to do with the fact that almost everything that wasn't used on a daily basis was stored in the attic. It was some kind of graveyard for decorations and objects that were once useful but had since turned into nothing but dust-gathering figures on forgotten corners. The chaos found in there was the polar opposite of the order and perfection the rest of the house presented. It was as disorganized as forgotten.

Which turned it, naturally, into the perfect place to hide private business.

"I just hope no one ever thinks of picking up some old decorations or anything," I mumbled to myself.

I climbed the small ladder at a turtle's pace, making sure that no wood plank would creak under my weight, giving away my intentions. Once inside, I turned on my phone's flashlight to make sure that I didn't step into any old lamp or box full of magazines that would never be read again.

Forget about the Room of Requirement, if you needed somewhere to hide a Horcrux, just come to my attic.

I soon got to the small table covered in a white blanket, right at the most obscure and remote end of the attic. I turned on a floor lamp that I had previously placed in there, and then I ever so carefully removed the blanket, unveiling my private atelier. It wasn't anything impressive; simply a regular table with some drawers to save my dad's old tailoring tools, but for a kid with cosplay as one of their main hobbies like I was, it was more than perfect. That's where I had confected all the costumes for our Dungeons and Dragons campaign, and it was also where I had been working on my secret project, kept so well as a secret that not even Clyde was aware of it.

Every year, at Royal Wood's local Comic-Con, they would host a cosplay contest. Last year I had tried to participate, but my Ultra Instinct Goku cosplay didn't make it past the first round. I heard people saying that my white dyeing was completely unrealistic. They wouldn't believe me when I told them that it was my natural hair color! I know it's weird and that doctors never found an explanation for it… but it was still very rude of them to call me a liar.

That's why I had spent the last seven months working on my most ambitious project to date. I had invested several allowances and saved up in secret so I could buy all the materials. I had measured my entire body multiple times, and I had even pinched my fingers with pins more times than I'm willing to admit. I spent countless hours locked up in the attic, staying hidden from my brother and dads and taking advantage of every single moment I had the house to myself working on this project. And now… it was finally time to use it.

All the pieces were there, spread on the table: the boots and the bracelets of a dark, almost brownish red. The one-piece spandex suit, of a dull red with a triangular patch of dark red that started on the shoulders and ended up on the sternum. The yellow, rubber belt. The cape of navy fabric.

In short, a hyperrealistic and functional Ace Savvy suit made for me.

Originally, this suit would be my tool to win the cosplay contest, but right then, its mission was going to be a different one. I had thought about it all afternoon, and it seemed like the only right option to redeem myself.

My curiosity and lack of common sense had ended with Ace Savvy's life, taking away from the city its greatest protector and vigilante. It was my fault that everyone had lost hope. And on a crazy, random, chance, my impulsive personality had also taken me to grab a glowing cube and acquire what seemed to be superpowers or at least physical skills comparable to those of the metahumans. The same powers that Ace Savvy had acquired long ago. If my theory was correct, he was just like me, a regular Joe that had walked into a gift. And just like he always said, what made him a hero was having made the decision to use his powers for the greater good. To risk his life every day to help his fellow citizens and try to make the city a bit better, one good deed at the time.

A deaf child had been assaulted right in front of my eyes, and instead of trying to stop the robbers, I ran away to hide. Well, no more. My cowardly had caused way too much pain for others, and I was willing to start rectifying my mistakes.

"Don't worry, kid," I said, as if she was watching me, "I'll take back what they stole from you."

I knew where those criminals would hang, and it was up to me to stop them. In practical terms, I didn't need the suit, but I did need a way to protect my identity if something bad happened, or if any security cam got me.

And speaking of protecting my identity, there was one last element that would work wonders for me. As any cosplay fan knows, hair is one of the most important elements to consider, and unfortunately, my white hair tended to ruin my otherwise perfectly fine cosplays. Ace Savvy wore a red mask that showed his blonde hair, clearly different from my own. Some judges would have been evil enough to automatically disqualify me if I went to a cosplay contest just like that, but I had found a solution: I wouldn't base my cosplay con Ace's current costume —or, well, his last costume—, but instead I would draw inspiration from his original design back in the nineties, which was practically the same, but instead of a mask that simply covered his eyes, he wore a full head one that covered everything but a square that started on his mouth and reached his chin. It was perfect because it wouldn't only hide my hair, it would also make it stand out from all the other Ace Savvy cosplays that would be there. Going for a retro style to look original and different.

And now it would definitely make sure to protect my identity.

Carefully, I undressed until I was only in my underwear, and then I quickly put on, for the first time, my Ace Savvy suit.

"Ugh… these new muscles aren't all that great now that I think about it…"

It was slightly tighter than intended on my shoulders and legs, but the resilient, first-class material was adapting perfectly to my new physique. I stretched out my arms and legs, noting how easily I could move them. Then I put on my bracelets and boots, the belt, and all the accessories that all fit in nicely. The final touch was securing the metallic clips of the cape on my shoulders so it wouldn't come out.

I stood in front of the full-body mirror and admired the result of my work. The reflection staring back at me wasn't that of a defenseless child, scared and confused. What I had in front of me was a hero, ready to correct his mistakes, redeem himself and bring something back to an innocent child.

"Time to deal out some justice," I said, striking what I thought would be a heroic pose before turning around quick enough for my cape to flourish in the air.

The attic had a small window that led to the roof and our backyard. I would have never dared to go through it, but I was confident in my new dexterity. It was a little bit past nine o clock, which meant I had two hours until the time the criminals had agreed to meet.

That suited me well because I had to make a little logistic stop before the confrontation.

* * *

Knowing the city helped me avoid the busiest streets and move, as much as possible, through the shadows. I was looking for streets with poor illumination, places with lots of trees for me to jump from one to the other, and I even dared to start going through the backyards of all the houses in the neighborhood. I was technically trespassing their properties by jumping over the fences and running through the backyards, so the fastest I did it, the better. I even had to dodge and outrun two guardian dogs, which was a great motivation to run as fast as I could.

I was still on an experimental phase with my new physical aptitudes, so I took that run in the middle of the night to get to know myself better. The first thing I noticed was that running at high speeds didn't seem to get me tired or agitated. It's not like I felt that I could do it forever, but I was surprised that I wasn't showing any symptoms of fatigue.

I decided to test my athletic skills by figuring out how high I could jump. Spoiler alert: I could do it pretty high. At high speeds, I was able to jump high enough to put my hand on the top of the fences and impulse myself forward. On one occasion I even decided to do a somersault, flipping forward in the air, and I loved the feeling of taking advantage of my jumping momentum and the speed I was running to accelerate my impulse.

I had never felt this happy with my body before.

A new feeling of adrenaline was now invading my veins, making me go faster, jump higher, and move as stealthy as a shadow. It wasn't the emotion of feeling like a hero, or the anxiousness of being about to face two dangerous adults. What guided my steps and ignited a spark within me was feeling a sense of purpose in my actions. I felt it was my responsibility to recover those headphones. It wasn't up to the police, or Nova and Eclipse. It was exclusively my responsibility, and I was willing to do it no matter the cost.

Faster than I would think possible going by feet, I reached my destination: the Spade Manor. Instead of getting in through the front gates, I did it through the backyard. I sneaked my way through the door. During my expeditious retreat the day before, I hadn't even locked the door. I got into the library, moved the red book, and his secret lair was once again at my disposal.

There were many things to check, but time wasn't on my side. I went straight to the case where Ace Savvy displayed all his different decks of utility cards. I picked one of each: regular, smoke, electric and explosives. The buckles fit my belt, although they seemed quite uncomfortable to carry.

"It must take a while to get used to them."

Having now projectiles at my disposal for range combat, I felt slightly more confident in my inevitable confrontation with the criminals, where I'd demand them to give back what they had stolen. In an ideal case, I wouldn't have to fight them, but if it got down to that, I would rather have something to defend myself. I wasn't thinking of taking anything else, but as I was leaving, I couldn't help but notice a different instrument of justice on another case.

At first glance, it looked like a pistol, but you could see the end of a grappling hook coming out of the barrel, in the shape of an Ace of Spades. This guy was very committed to his branding. Obnoxious, but consistent. It was a fundamental part of his repertoire, a tool thanks to which he was able to climb buildings and get through all sorts of obstacles.

I didn't have the slightest idea of how it worked, but it would be very helpful to get to the park faster while remaining hidden and away from the street level. It was much safer, and I could be jumping from rooftop to rooftop and across the streets without just casually running through the sidewalk. I decided to examine it. I found the safe, the trigger of course, and two buttons, one green, and one red. The green one had the icon of a bullseye over it.

"I guess there's no harm in testing it once."

I went to the living room and set my eyes on the first-floor hall that worked as a sort of balcony to the library. I decided to aim at the balustrade and pressed the green button. As I had assumed, a small laser pointer turned on, helping me aim.

"Please don't explode, please don't explode, please don't explode…"

I pressed the trigger and, had I not been extremely tense, the recoil would have made me take a few steps back. The hook flew through the air, staying connected to the main gun by a thin metal cable. It went over the balustrade, but before slipping out, it secured itself on the floor.

"Alrighty, so I guess I'll just press the red button an— HOLY MOLEY!"

As soon as I pressed the button, it was like someone tried to rip my arm off. I didn't fully understand how that grappling hook gun worked, but an incredible tractive force impulsed me towards the other end of the cable. I flew through the air, and between the threat of my arm getting out of my socket and the disorientation of having lost any sense of support and direction, it took me a second to react. Old Lincoln would have crashed face-first into the wall, but my new reflexes allowed me to analyze the situation, and almost instinctively, I put my body in the right position so my feet would absorb the impact and stop my fall on the first floor.

"Huh… alright, I think I just need a bit of practice," I said, moving my shoulder in circles to make sure it was in the right position. "At least the spandex took it like a champ. I knew my dad's fabrics would be top-notch."

Not wanting to waste any more time, I ventured out of the manor and went straight to my date with fate.

* * *

Hidden on a dense, voluptuous treetop, I waited in silence and still as a stone gargoyle, watching over the city from the top of a gothic cathedral. Getting there hadn't been easy since even at night, some parts of the park were still very well lit. Just a hundred and fifty feet away from my position, a sports court had several teenagers and young adults invested in a game of basketball. Avoiding them had presented itself as a challenge, but I felt invisible as I jumped from one bush to the next, waiting for the right moment to dash.

Stealth check: natural twenty. The best rogue in the history of Dungeons and Dragons.

Between all my gadgets, what I was missing was a clock. The waiting became eternal and quite maddening, but I had no other choice but patiently waiting. They said they would meet in the park's bridge, and there was only one bridge that went over the small creek that ended in the mini-lake of Justice's Park. I could only hope that those two delinquents would keep their word and be organized enough to meet at the time they arranged. It's not like I could do anything if they didn't show up. I didn't know who they were, or where they lived, or how to get to them. I could only wait and stay there to try to get those headphones back.

It took a while, and in one opportunity I got tense when I saw a figure walking to the bridge, but it was just someone walking their dog. At one point I begin to even doubt that they'd show up, but my patience was rewarded, and two figures appeared on each end of the bridge, walking towards each other.

They hadn't even changed their clothes. The bald man with a grey hoodie and the one with a black beanie met in the middle of the bridge, right between two lamps. They looked at each side, making sure that no one was around, and they began whispering and taking out a bag with something inside.

That was the moment of truth. Every inch of me was trembling, but there was no going back now. I thought of Ace Savvy. He would have moved forward, he would have done the right thing. I was faced with one of destiny's crossroads, and the path I chose would define me as a person. Would I be a coward yet another time?

Or would I act like a hero?

Sometimes, all you need is a leap of faith, and that's why I jumped from the branch I was resting on.

I perfectly cushioned my fall, and my cape fluttered so fluidly behind me that I wish I had a camera to record it. My hands were still trembling, and I was starting to sweat under my mask, but I managed my fear as I walked with anxious steps to the small bridge. I stopped thirty feet away from the thieves, who didn't seem to realize I was there yet.

I closed my fists and put them in a jar position on my waist. I spread my legs a big, lifted my chin up, and puffed my chest.

Round of surprise.

"H-Hey, you!" I said, embarrassed that I was stuttering.

The two men were taken aback, quickly turning to face me. Their small eyes seemed terrified at first when they saw my suit, but it didn't take long for them to adopt an unfriendly look.

"What the hell are you doing, kid?"

"Didn't you hear? Halloween was over months ago, punk."

"Get lost and leave us alone."

Good, they didn't automatically pull out a gun to shoot me dead. The worst-case scenario hadn't occurred yet.

When they turned, I was able to now look at their hands, and I could see that peeking out of the bag they had, there was the blue purse they had stolen from the woman. It was all the confirmation I needed.

"I'm here to kindly request that you give back the items you stole!" I said, trying to sound confident.

One of them, the one that looked like a fat bull, snorted.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Get out of here before you make me mad, shithead."

I didn't like his insult.

"Oh, so that woman's purse is yours?" I said, pointing at the small object. He tried to hide it inside the bag, but the damage was already done. I felt like being a bit more insolent. "That's so cute. Did your husband buy it for you?"

I made a hand gesture towards the other guy, the bald rhino. They both frowned, and even though part of me was starting to get scared, there was also a tiny bit of me that was satisfied with my improvised teasing.

"Are you trying to get in trouble?!" Said the bald guy, pacing towards me. My whole body got ready. "Get out of here right now before I rip that bucktooth out of your mouth!"

I stood right where I was. Part of my plan was to react more than acting. I wasn't sure of how to attack someone, but that day's events had convinced myself that my reaction time and reflexes were superb. If I was lucky, they would be enough.

"You hit a woman, you stole her purse, and you took the headphones of a deaf child," I said, raising my voice, trying to sound ominous. "Give them back so I can take them to who they belong."

"And what will you do if we refuse?" Said the other guy, starting to get closer to me as well.

Roll for initiative.

The bald guy was now just ten feet away from me, and my eyes were quick to read his body language. I noticed his tense fists, his clenched teeth, the way his torso seemed to start leaning to the right.

When he finally stretched his hand to try to grab me by the chest, I was prepared. With a quick flick of my arm, I hit his wrist, deflecting his arm. Taking advantage of that one second of confusion that my action caused on him, I jumped in my place to gain a little height, and with my other hand, I grabbed his hoodie, pulling it over his head and allowing gravity to get me to the floor, so my weight and my grip on him made him fall headfirst into the ground. Thinking of all those martial arts movies I had seen over the years, as I was laying down on my back I moved my legs and did some sort of double-kick into the air, using that impulse to arch my spine and get in a squatting position, ready to deal with the other guy as the first one tried to recover.

"You son of a bitch!" Yelled the one with the black beanie, charging at me.

Like an experienced bullfighter, I waited until the last second to dash a step to my left. He tried to punch me, but the new angle messed up with his gravity center, so seizing the opportunity, I palmed his fist, pushed it out of the way so it wouldn't hit me, and at the same time, I kicked him on his supporting leg.

He crashed behind me, his body dragging itself until he was next to his partner, who was only now getting back on his feet.

"Take back the stuff you stole and surrender!" I demanded, looking at them sideways and raising my arms up on guard.

They didn't look at me like I was a stupid kid. I could see that in their eyes. The bald one, who I had taken on first, seemed to want to get back to me, probably wanting to punch me in the face this time, but the other guy grabbed his arm.

"Drop it, let's go!"

"The fuck you mean drop it?! He's just a-!"

"He's a metahuman, you idiot! Let's go!"

Pressed by that revelation, the two of them gave me one last, nasty look before they got up and began to run in the opposite direction. In all the different scenarios I had pictured in my head, things would always end up with a fight in the worst-case scenario, or with them surrendering and giving me the stuff in a best-case scenario. I hadn't considered that they would run away from me.

I couldn't let that happen. I chased after them, but even though they looked like two double-door fridges, they moved pretty fast. I didn't seem to be cutting down the distance between them and me. They were moving straight to the court, where people were still playing ball. In an ideal world, no other person should have seen me, but I couldn't let them get in the middle of a chase, or even worse, let them become collateral damage.

We were surrounded by trees, so thinking fast, I grabbed my grappling hook gun from my belt, I aimed, and I shot it. Having done some practice on my way to the park, I was ready to be impulsed. I basically flew right over the two men on the run and managed to get into an advantageous elevated position. I couldn't tell whether they had noticed me or not, but they kept running at the court, passing right beneath me.

I pressed the outside of the green deck, catching the metal card that jumped right into my palm. After some quick mental math, I threw it with all my strength. Unlike the next day, my improved arm managed to get the projectile to cross the air until it impacted the ground right in front of the thieves. The card shattered, releasing a big cloud of smoke that quickly surrounded them. I heard some screams from the guys playing basketball, and the delinquents coughing.

Without further ado, I jumped from the tree and run right into the smokescreen with the intention of tackling them down. As I got in it, I could clearly hear someone saying "Ace Savvy?!".

I had to close my eyes to keep the smoke from irritating them and being practically blind I threw a side kick forward. I was lucky enough to hit someone, and judging by the noise they made, I managed to get them both to trip and fall.

The smoke had helped me gain time and ambush them, but now it was starting to play against me. Covering my face with my cape, I rolled diagonally, escaping the cloud. Once I was back on my feet, I turned around, just in time to see the two men coughing and crawling out of the smoke to get some fresh air. I spotted the bad with the purse inside and, presumably, the headphones, so I dashed towards it. I ducked to grab it, but a big, hairy hand also closed on it at the same time. I tried to pull it out of his grasp, but from the ground, the man kicked me right on my shin.

I had to bite my lip to keep myself from groaning out loud with how sharp the pain was. My leg gave up and I fell on one knee. I had never had a big tolerance to pain, and right then I could see stars dancing around my head. My moment of weakness was the opportunity they were waiting for, and soon the other guy stood up and kicked me right on my ribs. All the air left my lungs and I rolled sideways, coughing and trying to recover.

They must have thought that they had me cornered, since they both approached me with the clear intention of beating me down on the ground, but I was quicker. I rolled back just in time to dodge a new kick and stood up. Even with my chest and leg throbbing in pain, I adopted a defensive stand. The bald man threw a punch in my direction, but I simply moved my head to the side to dodge it. Our height difference left me right in front of his unprotected torso, which I immediately punched as hard as I could right in the stomach pit. I heard his gasping and losing his breath, but I had to push him to the left so he would get in between me and his comrade, who tried to get to me as I was busy with someone else. He tossed his partner out of the way and tried to jab me with his left fist. Trying to catch a punch coming from someone three times my weight seemed like suicide, so I just hit the side of his wrist with the back of my hand to divert it away from me. He threw a second punch, and this time I could only cross my arms and take it. My forearm resented the hit and I had to back off a step.

He threw a new punch with the same fist, and this time I didn't feel ready to take it. Instead, I slid right, and with a quick move that I had seen Ace doing countless times, I stretched my leg to kick him right on the side of his knee. He grunted and fell, grabbing the joint I had just hurt, and since he was now at my same height, I decked him right in the jaw.

I could sense the vibrations of his skull back in my fist, and my wrist even resented the impact as I saw him crumbling down, temporarily stunned. I could also hear several cheers of admirations coming from the audience that two minutes ago was simply playing some games late at night with their friends.

I couldn't afford to get distracted, though, since now the guy with the grey hoodie had taken a pocket knife. He deployed it, and the blade shone brightly in the middle of the night as a latent threat to me. I couldn't let him connect a single stab at me, since that would quite possibly be the end of my short life. Part of me started to get a bit desperate, but I wasn't going to let that desperation creep into me and control me.

I waited for him to get closer, and as soon as he started slashing at the air trying to get me, I only managed to retreat and dodge. None of us was an expert in martial arts or street fights, so my deduction was that if I decided to wait and not rush into action, I would soon find an opening to counterattack. I was smaller, faster and more agile, so stalling and waiting for the right time seemed like my best option.

He kept throwing brute attacks in my direction, and I simply dodged them jumping from here to there. At some opportunity, I thought I saw an opening to hit him, but I was afraid of messing it up and ending up dead for a miscalculation. The other guy, the one with the beanie, was just now starting to get up, and I could see from the corner of my eye that he wasn't doing any good, falling over and over to the ground and grabbing his jaw.

Suddenly, the sound of a police siren resonating through the air stopped me and my foe. We both turned just in time to see two police officers coming down from a car, about three hundred feet away from us.

"Oh, fuck!" He said, his eyes filled with terror.

That unexpected distraction was exactly what I needed. All it took was a round kick to his wrist to send the blade flying through the air, leaving him unarmed and defenseless. Knowing that it would take an instant or two for him to recover, I first struck him in his stomach pit to take his breath away, then on his kidneys so he would stoop down in pain, and finally a powerful punch to his nose to get him to fall back, knocked out on the floor.

Just the day before, my fists wouldn't have been able to even tickle someone as buff as he was, but I could sense the strength that each of my punches carried, and it wasn't that of a child. They were potent punches that must have hit like a dry brick.

With one less, there was only the guy with black clothes left. It turned in his direction. He was still on his knees, but now he stared at the police officers coming our way. His eyes set on me, and desperation I saw in them told me that was about to do something either very radical or very stupid.

He put a hand behind his back to reach for something, and when he brought it back, he was carrying a small, black handgun. It looked almost plastic, but I was sure that it wasn't. He started to move his arm in my direction, but I immediately began running in circles, getting away from his aim. I pressed the regular deck, and as soon as I could, I threw a card directly at his right hand.

Having missed my target for a few inches, I'm almost sure I could have accidentally killed that dude. Luckily, my throwing hand was working wonders, and the fine metal sheet hit the exact center of the pistol's muzzle, and the impact was so strong that he was forced to drop it.

Now knowing that this criminal was willing to shoot a kid just to get away with his evil intentions, I dropped any reservation I could have still had within me. I ran straight at him, jumped when I was about two feet away, and I let my knee hit him right in the face with all the speed and momentum I was carrying. I heard a disgusting sound, like when you're playing with a bubble wrap and instead of popping one bubble at a time you roll it up and twist it to get rid of many of them. I even felt a bit of pain in my knee, although it was probably nothing compared to what that guy felt, moaning limply on the floor. His hands didn't seem to be enough to stop the geyser of blood that poured from his nose like a scarlet well.

"Whooooooa! That was AWESOME!"

I turned at all the teens and guys that had been playing basketball. Of course, their game had been completely forgotten, and now they were standing in a semicircle at a prudent distance from where the fight had occurred. To my absolute despair, almost all of them had their phones out, and the bright lights of the flashlight told me that they were recording me.

I felt terrified. I didn't want anyone to ever find out what I had done. The last thing I wanted was that because of any mistake from my part, I would leave any clue behind to guide the authorities into me. Plus, if they had recorded me, they would have evidence that I was using Ace Savvy's decks, and I clearly didn't want any involvement in that.

The cops were still on their way, so I quickly grabbed the bag that the criminals had left behind. I was about to run away, but if I left like that, I was afraid of everyone thinking I was stealing.

I turned to look at the cameras.

"These men assaulted a woman and her child this afternoon," I explained, showing them the purse. "I'm just gonna return this to who it belongs."

Not waiting for a second longer, I grabbed my grappling hook gun and shot at the farthest tree I could see. It was an elegant way to get away from there as fast as possible.

As I was thrown into the air at full speed, I could hear the boys cheering me on. I had memorized the address the woman had given to Katherine Mulligan, so once again, I sneaked my way around town to get there.

My mind was still trying to process everything that had happened. I fought two men! Two dangerous criminals that I had been able to overpower, leaving them in the hands of the police! I'm not gonna lie, now that the adrenaline was starting to die down, I began feeling all the fear I had repressed during the fight. What if something went wrong? What if they punched me in the face and I couldn't react in time? What if the bald guy managed to hit me with the knife? And if the other guy wasn't as stunned and he was able to shoot at me in the act? I could've easily died in that confrontation. It could have been my end, and who would explain that to my dads? Fear was starting to get the best of me, and I had to shake my head to get those thoughts out of my mind.

"It's over, it's done. I survived. Now I just need to deliver this."

It took me a while, but I finally reached my destination. All the lights were off, so I just grabbed the purse, the headphones, put them on top of the bag, and using a piece of paper and a pen that I found in the bag, I wrote a small note.

"I believe this belongs to you."

And just to seem cryptic, I drew a small symbol of an ace of spades as a signature. I rang the bell and ran as fast as I could. By the time I reached the corner of the street, I could hear the sound of a door being open, and that's how I managed to smile all the way back home.

Sneaking through the attic's open window wasn't as easy as I thought it'd be, but I managed to do it just fine. I changed into my pajamas once again and hid my suit along with the gadgets I borrowed from Ace. My original idea was to put them back in Spade's Manor that same night, but truth be told, I was feeling exhausted. My legs, arms, and chest were aching, and I didn't feel like overextending my nightly tour of the city. It was a bit past midnight by the time I silently made my way back into bed.

My whole body was screaming for rest, and when I finally placed my head on the pillow, the only thing I was able to think before falling into a deep slumber was the fact that I had done the right thing.


End file.
